Hawke's Guide to Accidentally Starting a War
by AiraTerrindor
Summary: In Which Hawke just wants to keep people alive, Leandra is impulsive, Carver is (rightly) convinced that Hawke has a hero complex, and nobody is sure what Bethany is up to for ages but it turns out she's a queen. Also, a fair amount of forshadowing. Sequel to Sunshine.
1. Chapter 1

Very Important Disclaimer: This is a fanfiction. I do not own Dragon Age.

A sequel to Sunshine

Ch. 1: Out of the Fire

They say you're supposed to begin a story at the beginning, but, truthfully, I don't know where this one begins. Maybe it starts hundreds of years ago, or only thirty or ten. It's hard to tell with prejudice. So, I'm going to start with the part where I became involved. It's probably best not to speak for others, anyway, and besides this is all really just to set the record straight. The truth as I see it. My reasoning. I could start out with my childhood, but that would be incredibly dull, so I think I'll stick with just the past ten years. That's when everything started to get interesting, after all. During the Blight.

The best place to start, I suppose, would be when my family left Lothering. Mother stayed there far too long, really. Waiting for my idio- sorry, beloved, brother, and myself to get back from Ostegar. She really ought to have taken Bethany and evacuated as soon as she heard about the rout, but no, she had to send Bethany off with our crazy Grey Warden second cousin. Because that would be safer somehow. You've probably heard enough about all the things they got up to together to realize that it really wasn't. At all. Anyway, I'm rambling. Back to the main narrative.

You're probably wondering what I, an apostate mage, was thinking, being in Ostegar in the first place, considering that there were a bunch of Templars there. It's simple. I wanted to kill darkspawn. Nobody really noticed anything, anyway. I pretended to just be an ordinary swordsperson. It worked, though my estimation of the average level of intelligence among people in general and Templars in particular was not exactly raised. Too much prejudice for it to occur to anyone that a mage could be capable of using ordinary weaponry. Anyway, after Carver and I got back to Lothering just ahead of the darkspawn, due mainly to the use of lots of stabbing and explosions, we immediately went home, grabbed Mother, and got out of there.

We didn't run into trouble until the next day, when the horde caught up to us and we found ourselves running from darkspawn. Eventually, I was able to pick off the entire group following us with fireballs flung over my shoulder, giving the three of us a brief respite to literally catch our breath.

"We've lost all of it," said Mother sadly. "Everything your father and I built together, gone."

I looked at her. "Except, you know, your children," I said dryly. "Not that our home wasn't important and didn't mean a lot to you, but at least we're still alive."

"Not to interrupt, or anything," said Carver, looking around nervously, "but where can we even go?"

"We can go to Kirkwall," said Mother proudly.

Carver and I stared at her like she was insane. "Kirkwall, as in the Kirkwall that's swarming with Templars?" I asked. "Mother, we need to have a talk about the tactical decisions you have been making lately. First sending Bethany off with Cousin Olivia and now this?"

"It's not ideal," she admitted, "but at least we've got family there. Noble family. And an estate." She sounded determined.

I sighed. "It's better than nothing, I suppose."

"Er, Mother? Dora?" said Carver. "Shouldn't we be moving on, now?"

"Good point." We started back off down the road.

Only a few minutes and about a dozen darkspawn later, we rounded a bend in the road to see a man in Templar armor and a redheaded woman fighting a group of darkspawn. Or rather, a woman fighting a group of darkspawn and apparently defending an injured man.

The woman neatly beheaded three of the darkspawn before one of them managed to knock aside the man's shield and corner him against a rock. Yelling, the woman leapt on top of the darkspawn, tackling it to the ground, and punched the stunned monster a couple times in the face before grabbing her fallen sword from the ground. "You will not have him!" She snarled, lifting the darkspawn in one hand and shoving her sword down with the other and viciously decapitating the creature before jumping to her feet, grabbing the fallen shield with one arm and using the other to hold him upright. "They will not have you," she said to him, "Not while I breathe."

It took at least five seconds for me to process all of this before I remembered to help finish off the darkspawn attacking the… incredibly amazing woman and her man damsel in distress. Ooh, mansel. As soon as the fight was over, the woman turned to the collapsed mansel and slapped a quick bandage over his wounded shoulder while he continued to struggle to stand. "Stop squirming, Wesley!" she finally snapped. "You're only making it worse!" Even his name made him sound like a mansel.

He managed to stand up and immediately glared at me, stepping slightly in front of the woman. "Apostate, stay back," he said in a tone that was probably meant to be threatening but turned out to sound slightly woozy instead. The woman did not look amused at his behavior.

"Brilliant," I muttered.

"The darkspawn are clear in their intent, but a mage is always unknown," the Templar continued, sounding increasingly woozier as he went on. "The Order dictates…" he swayed on his feet, trying to continue. "The Order dictates…"

I looked at him with what I am sure was a particularly unimpressed expression. "Do you have a concussion?"

"Dear, they saved our lives," the woman said, "I'm sure the Maker would understand our teaming up with them."

"Of course," he said, still looking dazed.

"I am Aveline Valin," the woman introduced, "and this is my husband, Ser Wesley. We can get back to hating each other later," she said, pointedly looking at the Templar…Wesley. "Right now, the darkspawn are a bigger problem."

"No arguments there," I said. "Can your husband keep up? How badly is he injured?"

"I'll manage," said the Templar stiffly as he glared at me suspiciously. He looked about to collapse.

"We move together for now," said Aveline. "We're cut off on the north. Wesley and I barely escaped."

"Then we're trapped!" exclaimed Carver. "The only thing to the south is the wilds. We can't get out that way."

I rolled my eyes. "We can at least try. It's not like we have any other options. We're going south."

The five of us moved south for a couple miles without running into much resistance. It was not until we reached a flat circular outcropping in in the hillside that something went wrong. Specifically, the ground began shaking. "That can't be good," I commented, trying to keep my balance. A second later I was proved right as an ogre- the largest, strongest type of darkspawn in existence- appeared across from us and lowered its horned head to charge.

Our group scattered, everyone leaping to the side to avoid the charging behemoth and all of us landing face first in the dry red dirt. Thwarted, the ogre turned around, looking sluggishly between myself, Aveline, and Carver on one side and Mother and Wesley on the other. I could practically see the wheels turning in its head. It began to turn toward Mother and Wesley.

"Hey, ugly!" I shouted, scrambling the rest of the way to my feet and charging up a fireball in my hands. "Take this!" I threw the fireball at the back of the ogre's head, causing it to turn around, roaring. Before the ogre could gain up any momentum, I threw a blast of elemental magic at it, freezing it solid in a sheet of ice. Carver and Aveline seemed to realize what I was trying to do, as they ran around behind the ogre and jabbed their swords at the back of its ankles, trying to cripple it.

The ice was cracking already, so I threw another fireball at the ogre's head. This one knocked it backwards and Carver and Aveline quickly jumped out of the way as the ogre crashed to the ground, coming back in immediately afterward to each stab it through one eye.

The ogre thrashed around on the ground, obviously dead. We didn't have any time to celebrate, however, as darkspawn immediately began pouring up from all of the possible access points to the outcropping. Carver, Aveline, and I looked at each other and made a defensive half circle around Mother and Wesley, who had backed up against the rock wall of the hillside.

"There's no end to them!" moaned Carver despairingly.

"What do you think the odds are of them running out of darkspawn if we kill enough of them?" I asked in a falsely cheerful tone.

"Um, zero?"

"Yeah, we're dead," I agreed with Carver. "So…"

I never got a chance to finish my sentence, which was probably a good thing considering that I still don't know what I would have said, because there suddenly came a deafeningly loud, deep roar from above us. We all looked upward.

A gigantic, rusty-maroon dragon launched itself from the hillside above us and swept low over the darkspawn surrounding us, incinerating them with its breath and picking them up and tossing in the air like toys. We honestly had no response to that, especially when the dragon transformed itself into a distinguished-looking older woman dressed in rusty maroon robes and armor with white hair somehow arranged to look exactly like the dragon's horns in a gravity-defying feat.

The woman dropped the last of the dead darkspawn which she was still holding to the ground with a thump and began walking toward us. "Well, Well. What have we here?" Everyone stared at her for a moment before Wesley collapsed against a rock. Aveline rushed over to him, and the rest of us started to join her but were distracted as the old woman continues to speak. "It used to be we never got visitors to the wilds but now it appears that they arrive in hordes."

I couldn't help smiling slightly at the play on words, despite the situation. "Nice trick."

The woman began to turn. "If you're trying to get away from the darkspawn," she said, not facing us, "you should know you are heading in the wrong direction."

"So you're just going to leave us here?" asked Carver incredulously.

"And why not?" She tuned back around to face us. "I really just wanted to see the people who were capable of killing an ogre. Now I know and you're safe…for the moment. Is that not enough?"

"Well, you could always show me how to turn into a dragon. Must be pretty useful." Also really, really cool.

The woman laughed. "I suppose it is. Where do you plan to go? The darkspawn are everywhere, or at least they will be."

"We're going to Kirkwall," offered Carver. "In the Free Marches."

"That's a pretty long trip just to get away from the darkspawn."

"And where would you suggest we go? I hear the deep roads are vacant now," I said snarkily.

The woman laughed again. "Oh, you I like! Hurtled into the chaos you fight…and the world will shake before you." I shivered. That wasn't ominous at all. The woman turned away again and stood with her head on her fist, looking into the distance. "Is it fate or chance? I can never decide." She said, seemingly to herself, before turning back to us again and speaking as though she had just made some decision. "It appears fortune smiles on us both today. I may be able to help you yet."

I felt rather surprised. Also incredibly confused by her enigmatic monologue. "Anything would be appreciated. Thank you."

"Should we even trust her?" asked Carver. "We don't even know what she is!"

"I do," said Aveline from where she was bending over Wesley. "The Witch of the Wilds."

"Some call me that," admitted the woman. "Also Flemeth, Asha'bellanar, an 'old hag who talks too much'…" she laughed. "Does it actually matter? I will get your group past the horde in exchange for a simple favor. All you would need to do is deliver something to place not far out of your way."

I looked around at the others. "Well, we could always use more firepower. We don't have much choice, anyway."

"We never do," answered the Witch. "There is a clan of Dalish elves near the city of Kirkwall." She stepped forward and handed me a small metal amulet. "Deliver this to their Keeper, Marethari and do what she tells you to with it. And one more thing," she said grimly, turning to look at Wesley, who was lying on the ground, grayish and coughing.

"No! Leave him alone!" said Aveline.

"What has been done to your man is within his blood already."

"You're lying."

"No," coughed Wesley dramatically. "She's right. I can feel the corruption inside of me."

"The darkspawn taint. Can't we do anything?" I asked.

"The only cure I know of it to become a Grey Warden, "replied the Witch.

"And they all died at Ostegar," said Aveline despairingly.

"Not all of them, but you would never find the surviving ones in time," the Witch told her before I could say anything to that.

Aveline went and knelt beside her husband. "Listen to me," he said. "The corruption is a slow death…"

"You can't ask me this. I won't do it."

"Please…" Aveline turned to me, her face covered in an expression of abject pain. Why was she looking at me? She'd just met me.

"He's your husband, Aveline," I said softly. "It's your choice."

Slowly, she nodded. "Be strong, my love," whispered Wesley. Aveline picked up his knife and drove it through his heart.

She stood, and the Witch came up behind her. "Without an end, there can be no peace. It gets no easier. Your struggles have only just begun." Well, that wasn't ominous at all.


	2. Chapter 2

Ch. 2: Into the Frying Pan

Eventually, the four of us arrived in Kirkwall. My first impression as I got off the ship was that it was messy and chaotic and had something just a little bit… off… about it. I fell in love with the place almost immediately.

There was a crowd gathered in front of the gates into the Gallows surrounding a lone guard. "Looks like they aren't letting anyone in," said Aveline. "Unbelievable."

"Not really," I pointed out. "With all the refugees they must have pouring in? The really surprising part is that they let the ship dock."

We pushed our way through the crowd. "Get back with the rest, you lot," said the guard irritably. "We've got enough poor of our own without all of you adding to them."

I sighed. "Who's in charge here?"

"Why does everyone always say that? If you want into the city, talk to Captain Ewald."

"Pleasant fellow," I muttered. We walked past the abrasive guard to the main Gallows courtyard, where another guard, presumably Captain Ewald, was being confronted by a group of belligerent men in armor.

"Listen, the city is full!" Ewald snapped. "Kirkwall doesn't have any more room for refugees."

"You have to be letting some people in," I said reasonably. "Otherwise you wouldn't be out here."

"Yeah!" said the leader of the motley group who had been talking to Ewald. "You were letting lots of people in earlier!"

"Sure. Citizens and merchants. We've been letting refugees in for months, and there is just no more room. We'll find ships and get you all back to Ferelden eventually, but until then you have to stay out here."

"But we have family here!" complained Carver.

"If you found our uncle, Gamlen Amell, you'd have a few less refugees bugging you," I elaborated.

This seemed to interest him. "Gamlen Amell? I know that name."

"He's a nobleman here in the city," said Carver helpfully.

"The only Gamlen I know is an old drunk who gambles away all his money. Listen, if he shows up, I might let you through, but otherwise…"

The leader of the group of men Ewald had been arguing with interrupted. "You're letting them in? We've been waiting for four days! That's it!" he snapped, reaching for his sword, "We'll fight our way past."

What followed was a brief scuffle which ended with all five of the men dead as Carver, Aveline, and I helped Ewald fight off the attackers. "Thank you for that," said Ewald. "Look, I can't let you into the city, but I'll try to find your uncle."

Three days later, Gamlen appeared. Mother ran up to hug him. "Oh, Gamlen," she wailed, "it's been horrible!"

"Maker save me," he muttered. "Leandra, I don't even know if I can help you get in."

"Would it help if I said you were my favorite uncle ever?" I asked.

He laughed. "It would make me feel better, but that's it. I was hoping to shell out a few bribes, but the Knight Commander's been cracking down on that- we're going to need more money."

"But what about the Estate?" asked Mother, distressed. "Surely father left something when he died!"

"Er, about that," said Gamlen shiftily. "It's- gone. To settle a debt. I've been meaning to write you about it. For the last five years."

"Then there's no hope!"

"Not completely. There are a few people who might be able to help… if you don't care who you spend time with."

"Sounds brilliant," I said. "Who?"

"I found a couple people who'd be willing to pay your way in. Provided that you spent a year working off the debt."

I groaned. "Not much choice, I suppose. What do we need to do?"

"There's Atheneril, a smuggler, and Meeran, leader of the red iron mercenary company. Meet them in the courtyard and convince them you're worth the trouble."

"Sounds like a plan."

"What about me?" asked Aveline. "I won't let others incur debts on my behalf."

"You're coming with us."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. No argument." I glared at everyone in the group, daring them to disagree. "Let's go talk to that Atheneril person. Smuggling sounds a bit less high profile than working as a mercenary and I don't particularly want to be noticed by the Templars."

We walked over to Atheneril, who turned out to be a rather shady-looking elven woman standing in the corner of the Gallows. "Ah, Hawke. Your uncle told me about you. We've got a lot of good smugglers, but no one who can quite work your magic, if you know what I mean."

Uncle Gamlen had told her I was a mage. "Brilliant. Oh this is going to be a fun year," I muttered sarcastically.


	3. Chapter 3

Ch. 3: Job Hunting

After a year of doing Atheneril's dirty work, Carver and I finally found ourselves free to look for honest work. Well, as honest as could be found in a city like Kirkwall, at least.

"Look," said Carver to the dwarf we were trying to convince to hire us as guards for his deep roads expedition. "You'll need to hire the best, and we're the best. We've fought darkspawn!"

"I don't care if you tore the horns of an ogre with your bare hands," said the dwarf. "The answer's no."

"Actually, he just hamstrung it," I said cheerfully. "With a sword. Still awesome, though."

Carver turned to me in frustration. "You talk to him. We're running from your bloody Templars!"

I rolled my eyes. "My brother does have a point," I said. "So, what do you say Bartrand? We really are what you need."

"You're looking for a quick way out of the slums. Well, so's every other Ferelden in this city. Find someone else," snapped Bartrand, turning away.

Carver sighed in exasperation. "Well, back to waiting for someone to turn us in."

His attitude was getting a little annoying. "What are you so worried about," I said irritably. "I'm the mage, not you."

He looked a little guilty. "Maker! Do I really sound that bad? Ugh, I'm turning into Gamlen. Hey! Maybe Gamlen can do something. He does know a few people, and after what happened last week we can use all the money and influence we can get."

I flinched inwardly. Last week had been a disaster. "It's worth checking, I suppose."

At that point, we had just begun to walk away when a slightly ragged man with spiky red hair bumped into me and ran off. I checked for my coin purse. It was, predictably, gone. Ah, the perfect capper to my day. "Hey!" I yelled futilely. "Get back here!"

The thief had just turned the corner when a crossbow bolt appeared out of nowhere and nailed his shirt to the wall of the building he was passing. I stared, too surprised to do anything. A dwarf carrying a large, ornate crossbow walked up to the thief. "That was pathetic. You don't have the skill for this. At all. Maybe you should find a new line of work." The dwarf punched the thief in the jaw and pulled the arrow out from the building, picking up my coin purse as the stunned thief slumped to the ground.

The dwarf walked up to Carver and myself, and handed me back my purse. "Varric Tethras, at your service," he said spinning the crossbow bolt in his hand before placing it back into his quiver. "Sorry about Bartrand. My brother's an idiot when it comes to spotting opportunity."

"And you aren't?" I asked, giving my head a mental shake to remove my first thought which was along the lines of 'look at all that chest hair'.

"I would. He's too proud to admit it. I, however, am quite practical."

"What makes you think we can help?"

"You've made quite the name for yourself this past year. Atheneril's the only group of smugglers that hasn't been squeezed out of business by the Coterie, thanks entirely to you."

"Oh? You must have heard about Carver, too."

"A little. Mainly 'he's Hawke's brother'. I suppose he can come on the expedition too, if you like."

"Oh, that's nice," said Carver grumpily.

I ignored him. "There has to be some way I can convince your brother to take us on the expedition."

Varric sighed. "The truth is, we don't need more guards, we need a partner. We lost the one we had and Bartrand's been trying to fund this on his own, but he doesn't have the money. We're short by about fifty sovereigns."

"It sounds nice, but if I had fifty sovereigns, I wouldn't be job hunting."

"You need to think bigger than that. There's only a short amount of time after a Blight when the deep roads aren't crawling with darkspawn. The treasure down there could set you up for life."

That did sound good. "Come on," said Carver. "The dwarf makes sense. It's certainly better than ending up in the gallows."

"For the thousandth time, Carver, you are in absolutely no danger of ending up in the gallows. You're not a mage." I looked back at Varric. "Why not. It's not like I had anything better to do."

"Perfect. Kirkwall's crawling with work, save some coin from every job and you'll have enough in no time."

"Yeah, easy," muttered Carver sarcastically. "Maybe the city guard has some bounties out. We could ask Aveline, she joined them, didn't she?"

"Yes, Carver, she did. A fact which you really shouldn't be so unclear on remembering."

"See? You've got a plan already," said Varric cheerfully. "We should talk privately when you get a chance, Hawke. In the Hanged Man. I'll be there when I'm not with you. Now, let's go see what trouble we can stir up.


	4. Chapter 4

Ch. 4: Templars and Corrupt Guards

"Aveline!" I said happily, walking up to where she was standing next to the guards' roster. She didn't react. "That's all I get?"

"Sorry," she said, turning around to look at me. "I feel like I just saw you. I've been keeping an eye on you. Information is pretty much the only perk of this job."

"You've been spying on me? That's kind of stalkerish, Aveline."

She looked down. "I know you can take care of yourself, but… After what we went through to get here- I take care of my friends. Besides, with the places they have me patrolling, I've got way too much free time. I need something to do."

"You're still having trouble fitting in around here, huh?"

"I should go where I'm needed. In fact- I might have a job for you."

"Oh? What?"

"There's an ambush coming up. Probably for a caravan. I can't find anything about one that's supposed to be passing by at that time shipments but it doesn't really matter. It's still highwaymen. I'm stopping it even if it isn't in my district."

"I'll help."

"I knew I could count on you."

Carver and I went home to find Mother and Gamlen arguing. Again. "My children have been in servitude! For a year!"

"You ran off with some Ferelden apostate when you were supposed to marry the Comte du Launcet. You don't get to stay the favorite when you do something like that!"

"Where is Father's will? I demand to see it!"

"It was read, it went in the vault. No one needed to look at it again."

"Just let her see it, it'll make her feel better," I said reasonably.

"Even if I wanted to, I can't; I left it at the estate."

Carver looked irritated and shocked at the same time. "Seriously? Who forgets to keep something like that?"

"It was old news!"

"Carver's still right. You don't just leave important legal documents behind when you move," I pointed out.

"Who bought the estate?" asked Mother. "Was it the Reinhardts? Maybe I can talk to them."

"Nobody you'd know," snapped Gamlen. "Get used to living in Lowtown, sister. You're here to stay." With that they both stormed off as far as possible in the tiny room.

"Maker, what a mess," Carver said to me. "I want to help Mother, but Gamlen has a point. Being stuck in someone's shadow your whole life is awful…Mother even gave me her old key to try to stir something up, but it's not like I ever knew Grandfather. Finding his will just doesn't matter to me."

"We still ought to try, though," I said. "It's only fair to Mother."

"Yes, but it's not like we can just ask slavers to give it back."

"Wait- slavers? What have you heard?"

"Uncle gets talkative when he's drunk. Apparently, he was up to his neck in debt and signed everything over. The most extensive wine cellar in Kirkwall is now a slave highway from the Undercity," said Carver bitterly.

"No one will miss slavers, and I don't know about you, but this makes me a little angry."

"We agree at last."

"So, what would you do with slavers?"

"There's only one thing that kind of person deserves."

I smiled viciously. "We agree at last."

"How about we clean the place up?"

"Oh yes."

While we waited until nighttime to clean out the estate, Carver and I went with Aveline and Varric, who seemed to have decided to follow me around, to take care of the ambush.

"Do you have to stop to take everything of value from each group of highwaymen we kill?" complained Carver after the third time that we had beaten a group and had me stop to loot the dead bodies.

"We need money. Get used to it," I told him.

"Their equipment's pretty nice, considering they're bandits," commented Aveline. "Never mind. They're won't be bothering anyone again. Let's head back to the barracks for your just reward!"

As it turned out, our just reward was listening to Aveline get chewed out by her captain for showing off.

"What a nice fellow," I said to Aveline once she had stormed out of the captain's office.

"Bandits are dead, that's what matters," she said, frustrated. "This isn't the first time the captain's made me wonder like this. Something is very wrong."

"So, how about we find out, then?"

We went to check to duty roster to see who had been assigned to that patrol, but before we could take a look a smiling blonde guardswoman came up to us.

"Aveline!" she called out. "I owe you for clearing that ambush."

"Brennan. That was your route?"

The other guardswoman nodded. "A single patrol. I'd have been dead."

"So it was just a normal patrol?" I asked.

"Nothing unusual about it until that ambush. The route had been clear for a week. The captain reassigned me after we heard and I passed the satchel to Donnic for tonight."

"The satchel?" I asked.

"The captain has us run messages to the outposts during light duty. It's usually just pay and orders, but the satchel this week was heavier than that. Anyway thanks again, Aveline." She walked off.

"So," said Aveline. "The satchel gets unusually heavy the same day as an ambush."

"Sounds to me like a set up. I'm sure there's a perfectly reasonable lie that explains this."

"But people are in danger. Donnic…" she checked the roster. "It's got his route here. Let's go make sure this quiet patrol of his stays that way."

We wandered down to The Hanged Man to wait until it was actually nightfall. Aveline and Carver sat down at one of the tables with mugs of the place's really awful beer and started arguing about why Aveline kept 'losing' Carver's applications join to the city guard. Varric and I discretely scooted our chairs away and pretended we didn't know them.

"So, you said you wanted to talk to me about something, earlier."

"We need a good entrance into the deep roads for the expedition," he began.

"Wait a minute," I cut in. "The expedition doesn't have enough funding or a good way into the deep roads?"

"Bartrand isn't very good at planning ahead," Varric admitted. "Anyway, I heard that there's a Grey Warden from Ferelden that came in with some refugees not too long ago. He might know something."

"This doesn't exactly sound like a good idea," I pointed out.

"Got a better one?"

"Unfortunately, no. Where is this Grey Warden, anyway?"

"No idea. I heard that Lirene, the woman who runs that Ferelden Imports shop a few blocks away might know, though."

"Huh. Want to head over there and ask? We've got time." I glanced at the still bickering Aveline and Carver and poked my brother in the arm. "Quit it. Let's run some errands while we're waiting for night."

We went into the dingy little shop filled mainly with loitering refugees more than saleable goods. "Hello," I said cheerfully to the woman at the counter. "I'm looking for a Ferelden Grey Warden."

She glared at me suspiciously. "Never heard of him."

"And I didn't say it was a him," I pointed out, smirking.

Lirene visibly deflated. "Look, Anders is a good person. I won't have the Templars finding him."

Carver rolled his eyes. "Wonderful. Another mage."

I stepped on his foot. "Do we look like Templars?" I asked.

"Well, you do have a city guard with you," Lirene pointed out reasonably.

"She's off duty. Listen we, really need his help. It could save lives."

She looked unimpressed.

"Ferelden lives," I clarified.

"He has a clinic in Darktown. Everyone knows to look for the lit lantern." She didn't seem to be in the mood to be more specific.

"Thank you," I said. We left.

Outside the door was an angry looking group of refugees. "We heard you asking about the healer in there!" yelled one of them. "We won't let you turn him over to the Templars!"

"If you don't want Templars bothering you then don't pick fights with other Fereldens when they're after us all!" Carver shouted back angrily.

The refugee leader looked embarrassed. "You're Fereldens? Sorry, I thought you were from Kirkwall- you're dressed like them and everything." The refugees walked off looking a little awkward.

"That's what you get for making assumptions," I muttered. "So, who's up for going and looking for this clinic?"

Aveline looked antsy. "Donnic…"

I peered pointedly up at the sky. "It's what, one in the afternoon? His patrol doesn't start for hours. Isn't it better to do something productive than it is to sit around worrying all afternoon?"

"I suppose…" she admitted slowly.

"Exactly. Let's go."

We ended up wandering around Darktown for a couple hours before finally finding a glowing lantern above a door matching Lirene's vague description.

"Hey," said Carver, looking off to the side. "Isn't that the door to the Amell estate cellars?"

I looked at the dingy, junk-filled doorway that he was pointing to. There was a faded Amell crest on the door. "We'll have to come back later, there probably won't be anyone there right now," I pointed out.

"Huh. The cellars come all the way out here. Maybe we really were important," Carver mused.

Wow. Personal growth. There was a surprise. I didn't know exactly how to react to that, so I just went up to the door underneath the lantern and pushed it open.

Inside, there was a man with a staff using healing magic on a child lying on a table while what appeared to be the child's parents watched with concerned expressions. The child suddenly jumped up and his parents hugged him while the mage staggered backward.

As we walked farther into the room, the mage suddenly whirled quickly around and held up the staff threateningly. "I have made this place a sanctum of healing and salvation! Why do you threaten it?" he shouted, his voice echoing slightly. I couldn't help thinking that he was rather attractive.

"What makes him think we're threatening anything?" muttered Carver irritably.

"Probably the fact that we're all armed to the teeth," I pointed out. "We're not here to cause trouble," I said to the mage. "Just information. Word is that you're a Grey Warden."

"Did the Warden's send you to bring me back?" he asked, glaring at me. "I'm not going. They made me get rid of my cat! Poor Ser Pounce-a-lot. He always did hate the Deep Roads"

I wasn't sure what I had been expecting, but it wasn't that. "You had a cat named Ser Pounce-a-lot? In the Deep Roads?" I wasn't sure which part was more surprising.

"He was a present!" defended Anders. "A noble beast. Hit a gunlock on the nose once." He looked fond. "The wardens said he made me too soft and I had to give him to a friend in Amaranthine."

"Right…Can you even leave the Wardens? I didn't think that was even possible."

"Well the darkspawn taint and nightmares are permanent, but if you hide well enough it turns out that you don't have to wear the uniform or go to the parties," he said humorously.

I smiled. "Actually, we need your help. I'm part of an expedition to the Deep Roads, and anything you can tell me could keep people from dying."

"If I never have to think about the Deep Roads again, it will be too soon. No… Although…" He got a speculative look on his face. "A favor for a favor. You help me I help you. Sound fair?"

I sighed. "Everybody wants something. I suppose so."

"You don't even know what I want yet. What if I were asking for Knight-Commander Meredith's head on a stick?"

"Are you?" I challenged. Actually, that might not be so bad. They might replace her with someone that was an actual human being.

"You tell me. Actually, I came to Kirkwall to help a friend of mine. A mage imprisoned in those wretched gallows. Then the Templars found out what I was up to. If you help me get him past them I'll give you my Deep Roads maps."

"I'd want to help any of my fellow mages that were in a situation like that. Absolutely."

Behind me, Carver groaned. "And this is why the heat's on us. You have such a hero complex."

"No I don't," I disagreed.

"Thank you," said Anders. "I'm meeting Karl in the Chantry at midnight tonight."

"I'll be there," I promised, ignoring Carver's groan. "You know," I commented while we were leaving. "We really aren't going to be getting any sleep tonight, are we?"

"Well, at least things are interesting," said Varric. He appeared to be taking notes.

When we found Donnic, he was being attacked by a group of coterie thugs that had him knocked down and helpless. My group's arrival evened up the odds a bit, though we were still slightly outnumbered, and we managed to kill off all the thugs pretty quickly.

Aveline ran up to Donnic and helped him stand. "Wow," he muttered dazedly. "You're a beautiful sight, Aveline."

"Guardsman," she said, blushing slightly.

"I mean, thank you for rescuing me, I thought I was a goner."

"Look at this," said Varric, examining the satchel, which had fallen to the ground. "The viscount's seal, office details, city accounts…"

"Sounds pretty useful to thieves," I commented.

"Captain Jevan set up one of our own people to deliver this! He needs to pay!" said Aveline furiously.

"Selling state secrets? Sounds like Jevan should be in politics," I commented.

"Not now, Hawke. This is serious. The viscount is going to hear about this."

At that point it was almost midnight, so we headed over to the Chantry. Anders was lurking in the shadows next to the door. "There you are. I haven't seen any Templars around here. Just let me do all the talking, alright?" I nodded.

We walked into the Chantry and headed up the flight of stairs to the right. A gray haired man was standing on the landing, facing away from us. "Karl!" said Anders happily.

The other answered in a disturbing monotone. "Anders, I know you too well. I knew you would never give up."

"Huh? What are you talking about?"

Karl turned around and the mages in the group, which were just myself and Anders, stared in horror at the sun-shaped tattoo on his forehead.

"Oh, no. No." Anders sounded like his heart was breaking.

"How else will mages ever control themselves?" asked Karl, still in the empty monotone voice. "You'll understand, Anders. As soon as the Templars teach you to control yourself." Karl looked behind us. "Here is the apostate."

We all turned around to find a group of Templars had come out of the shadows behind us. "Nooo!" screamed Anders. He doubled over, and cracks began to appear all over his body, shining with blue light. When he straightened back up, his eyes were glowing blue. "You will never destroy another mage like you did to him," he announced in a resonating, echoey voice. The Templars instantly drew their weapons and attacked. They didn't last long.

The blue light faded away. Karl blinked. "Anders? What did you do? It's like you brought a piece of the Fade into this world. I had forgotten what that feels like… " He sounded confused but otherwise normal.

I stared at him. "Did blondie there just find a cure for Tranquility?" Asked Varric. "We could totally market this. Make a fortune."

Karl looked amazed. "It's like the Fade is inside you, burning like the sun. But, it's fading away… You have to kill me! Now, before I forget it again!"

"Karl, no-" said Anders miserably.

"Do it!" I said. "I don't know about you, but I as far as I'm concerned, being made Tranquil is a fate worse than death!"

"I got here too late to save you," said Anders sadly. "I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry."

"Hurry! It's fading away!" wailed Karl. A blank look came over his face and the emptiness returned to his voice. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

Anders stepped forward and stabbed Karl in the chest. "Goodbye," he whispered. The body fell to the floor. "We should get out of here before more Templars show up."

We followed Anders back to his clinic. "So," I said when we arrived. "Let me guess. This is the part where you tell me you're an abomination."

"No! Sort of. I mean, I'm possessed, but not by a demon," Anders explained.

Everyone just looked at him flatly.

He sighed. "Okay. So, when I was in Amaranthine, I met a spirit of justice. He was trapped outside the Fade and we ended up becoming friends. He saw the injustice that mages in Thedas face all the time."

"And now you have glowy eyes…"

"He needed a body to live outside the Fade. We were going to work together- to avenge every child ever ripped from their mother by the Circle. But I guess I was too angry. Once we were sharing a body he… changed."

"Yeah, he didn't look too friendly. Maybe the fact that your game plan involved the word 'avenge' should have been a warning. Revenge is never a good thing."

"Great," said Carver, "We're friends with a monster. The Templars are going to just love us."

"Since when is justice friendly?" asked Anders. "Justice is hard. Justice is righteous. Only, whenever I see Templars, things that have always outraged me- He comes out. And he is no longer my friend justice. He is a force of vengeance. And he has no grasp of mercy."

"See? I said that any plan involving the word 'avenge' was a bad idea."

He glared at me, and then just looked sad. "Here are those maps you wanted," he said gloomily, handing me a sheaf of folded papers. "I understand if you don't want me to travel with you, though, considering my condition." He looked pretty depressed.

"You know what we need?" I said cheerfully. "Alcohol!" I grabbed Anders' arm and began to drag him along behind me. "Also, I'm taking that last statement of yours as tacit agreement to come on the expedition with me."


	5. Chapter 5

Ch. 5: Hawke Hates Slavers

We got to the Hanged Man pretty quickly, but just before we went inside Aveline sighed. "Listen, Hawke, it's one in the morning, and as the only person here who has a steady job with fixed work hours, I really need to get to sleep. Meet me over lunch tomorrow so we can go report Jevan to the viscount?"

She did have a pretty good point there. "Sure."

"I'd have a steady job, too, if you didn't keep convincing the guard to deny my applications," complained Carver.

"Goodnight, Hawke," said Aveline loudly, leaving.

Carver glared after her. "Give it up," I said, opening the door. "It's never going to happen."

We entered right into the middle of a bar fight. A Rivaini woman was fighting with three rather large thugs, and winning easily. "Wow," I commented as she ran off all three of the heavily armed bruisers using nothing but a pair of daggers.

"So," Varric asked when we'd sat down, "I have to know. What was going through your head when you fought that ogre?"

I smiled. "For the first few seconds? 'Man, that's huge.' Seriously, what those things eat? Well, besides people."

Varric laughed. "You're the only person I've met who's even seen one, much less fought and killed it. Somehow, I think this deep roads trip will be pretty interesting with you around. Not that I expect it to be boring, really. Constant threat of doom does tend to keep you awake."

"So does insomnia," I pointed out. "I wouldn't go for the doom first."

"Still, the deep roads are bound to be a lot more dangerous than Kirkwall. This'll be well, let's just call it an adventure."

"Great, now we're adventurers!" I looked at my empty mug. "Refill time."

I wandered over to the bar and ended up next to the woman who had been in the bar fight earlier. "You're new around here, aren't you?" she asked. I shrugged. "Watch out for the men in this place. They're grabby."

"Thanks for the warning."

She smiled. "I'm Captain Isabella. Or I was, until my ship got wrecked. Now it's just Isabella. You're from Ferelden, aren't you? You have the accent; I was in Denerim a little while ago. You know-" She said slowly, taking a closer look at me. "You look like you might be just the sort of person I need to solve a little problem of mine."

"How little?" I asked suspiciously.

"Someone from my past has been pestering me. It's annoying. I've challenged him to a duel to get him to go away, but he's the type of person who'd prefer to just ambush me with a dozen minions instead. I need someone to watch my back."

I shrugged. "Sure, I'll help."

"I'm meeting Haydar in Hightown in a couple hours."

"I'll be there," I promised.

We sat around drinking for a while then went to meet up with Isabella in Hightown. We found her standing twitchily in the middle of a square. "There you are," she said. "Haydar hasn't shown up yet. I don't like this."

Varric raised his eyebrows. "I don't like this? The only worse jinx you could put on yourself is by saying 'what could possibly go wrong."

An armored woman appeared leading a group of thugs. "It's her!" she shouted. "Get her!"

"Nice," I muttered, firing off an ice spell at the speaker.

"Haydar sent them," said Isabella once the fight was over. "I need to find out where he is."

I checked the leader's pockets. There was a folded piece of paper inside. I handed it to Isabella, who read the message on it, looking furious. "He's lurking in the Chantry while he sends thugs to do his dirty work for him? Oh, he is not getting away with this!" She ran off toward the Chantry, leaving the four of us to chase after her.

There was a group of raiders standing right inside the Chantry. "Figured you'd find me here, Isabella," said the largest and most brutish-looking of the lot, presumably Haydar. "I was going to at least hide upstairs to make things slightly more difficult for you, but for some reason there were a lot of dead Templars up there."

"Heh." I giggled nervously and tried to look innocent. In retrospect, we probably should have waited until they'd at least cleaned the bodies up before returning to the scene of the crime.

"Where's the relic, Isabella?" Haydar asked.

She shrugged. "Lost it."

"Like you lost a ship of valuable cargo?"

"They were people, not cargo!" Yelled Isabella angrily.

"Castillon's going to be mad," said Haydar.

Slavers. Ugh. "Sounds like Castillon needs to get a life," I muttered. "Or, preferably, drop dead. I hate slavers."

"There's only one way to settle this." Isabella flung one of her daggers, killing the woman standing next to Haydar, instigating a fight which ended with yet another group of dead bodies in the Chantry.

"Okay," I said, "Obviously the Templars and raiders killed each other. That's the story if anyone asks, alright. Also, we were never here."

"You killed the Templars, huh?" asked Isabella.

"Maybe."

She sighed. "Castillon'll find me eventually. I really need to get him that relic."

"Want some help? Though I'd really prefer to just kill him, considering that he's a slaver."

"You'll be the first to know if I hear anything about where it is. I think I'll tag along awhile, too. See if I can help you with anything. Mainly because if I do and Castillon finds me, you'll probably kill him before he kills me."

We left the Chantry as quickly as possible. "Hey, wasn't there something else we were going to do tonight?" I asked.

"Slavers," reminded Carver.

"Oh, right."

We headed back to Darktown and used mother's old key to get into the cellars of the old estate. "I really hate slavers," I commented as we were killing our way through.

We found the will locked up in the vault. "Well, well," I said taking a look at it.

"Let's just take it back to mother," said Carver testily.

"An excellent idea." I couldn't help smirking.

When Carver and I got home, Mother and Gamlen were arguing again.

"I'm just saying, you're my sister, but maybe if you could make a monthly contribution toward finances-"

"Oh, first you sell my children into servitude and now you want me to pay you rent?" Mother asked, furious.

"So, we found the will," I announced.

"Or not," said Gamlen quickly. "It's not that much of an imposition, really."

Mother looked at the will. "Somehow, I think you've misunderstood the meaning of 'stipend', Gamlen. Maybe you should invest in a dictionary."

"Well, what was I supposed to do? You didn't even come home for the funeral!"

"The twins were only a week old! Do you have any idea how difficult it is to travel with two newborns and a toddler?"

"Everyone has problems, Leandra. Mine was taking care of all the responsibilities you abandoned! How long was I supposed to wait for you to get back?"

"How about longer than five seconds?" I asked. "Or, here's a thought, how about sending her a letter explaining about the inheritance instead of, you know, embezzling it all."

"I was the one who took care of father when he was dying, and Leandra was still the only thing he'd talk about! I'm sorry, but it's all over now."

"Well, at least father didn't die hating me," said Mother. "I'll petition the viscount to get the estate back, since it was sold illegally, and hopefully you'll have your house back in a few weeks."

Gamlen snorted. "Like that'll ever happen. In this city you have to be someone important- and rich- to even think about living in Hightown."

"Then I had better get started working on it." Mother stomped off.


	6. Chapter 6

Ch. 6: In Which There are Missing Persons Cases To Investigate

I collapsed into bed. When I woke up a few hours later, Carver was waving a pair of letters in my face. "What?" I asked irritably.

"They're from Atheneril. Apparently, there's a couple people who are looking for help."

"Okay, okay. What time is it?"

"Around eight in the morning."

"Fine. I'm getting up."

I went to talk to one of the people mentioned in Atheneril's letters and somehow ended up killing a bunch of dragons and becoming part owner in a mine outside Kirkwall. When we got back to Hightown, we passed by the Chantry and were treated to a rather dramatic confrontation between the Grand Cleric and a bowman dressed in white armor. "Sebastian," said the Grand Cleric. "Stop this insanity! The Chantry cannot approve of its people going around avenging things!"

The man ignored her and continued to pin a poster on the chanters' board. "I won't allow those assassins to get away with what they did!" Wow. He had a really attractive voice.

The Grand Cleric ripped the paper off the board and shook it at him. "This is murder!"

He turned around and shot the paper out of her hand with his bow, pinning it back onto the board. "No. What they did to my family was murder." They both stomped off in opposite directions.

"Okay, I have got to see what that was about," I said, going up to read the paper. "Woah. These Flint Mercenary Company people murdered that guy's entire family."

Carver sighed, "Are we at least going to get paid for this, or is it just more of your compulsive do-gooding?"

"There's a bounty. And just because you don't care about other people at all doesn't mean…"

"Excuse me," a nervous, unhappy looking blonde woman interrupted.

"Yes?"

"It's my brother."

"What about him?" I asked. Carver sighed and smacked his forehead.

"He's missing! Keran was always so devout, so idealistic- he was so proud when the Templars let him join. I begged him not to, but he didn't listen to me! There are all sorts of horrible rumors going around about the Templars and Knight-Commander Meredith- And now my brother's gone! I haven't heard from him in weeks!"

Carver, Varric, and I looked suspiciously at Anders. "It wasn't me!"

I sighed and looked back at the woman. "What exactly happened?"

"He just stopped writing to me, and when I tried to see him Knight-Commander Meredith threw me out and they won't tell me anything!"

"How can I help?"

Anders groaned and put his head in his hands. "I think I see what Carver means by impulsive do-gooding," he muttered. Everyone ignored him.

"Just if you go by the Gallows," continued the woman, "and ask Keran's friends, Wilmod and Hugh, what happened. They might know. Maker bless you in this endeavor." She curtsied, looking relieved.

We went to the viscount's keep to meet Aveline at the barracks. She smiled when she saw us. "You're just in time. Watch." Two helmeted guards dragged Captain Jevan out of his office, shrieking threats the whole way."

The viscount's snooty seneschal, Bran, looked on disapprovingly. "He turned out to have several suspicious debts. Such poor character. We need a new guard captain now. How about you, Aveline Valin? You uncovered this corruption, after all."

"Well," she began.

"Excellent! Your management training will last six weeks." He left.

"Why are we here?" asked Carver when we had arrived in the market. "We don't need to go shopping."

"No, but I saw a notice about a missing woman earlier and I wanted to get more information on it."

"Right, because of your hero complex."

"Carver, just because I like rescuing people doesn't mean that I have a hero complex."

"Hero complex," he whispered under his breath in a singsong voice. I ignored him and walked up to the man arguing with a pair of guards nearby.

"Listen, if your wife decides to leave you, that's her business," said one of the guards, "not ours."

"But she's my wife!" The guards rolled their eyes and left. "Argh, what are we even paying those people for?"

"So pay someone else," I said cheerfully. "You're Ghyslain de Carac, right? I saw the notice you put up."

"Yes! I need to find her! Her family is starting to think that I did her in! I need to clear my name!"

"Erg. I'll help, but only because there might actually be foul play involved."

"Thank you! You should try talking to Jethan at the Blooming Rose. He wrote a letter to our house, even sent her flowers one time. Lilies, her favorite." Ghyslain began grumbling under his breath.

"Next missing person?" I asked.

"Great," complained Carver.

When we reached the Gallows, I went up to a group of Templar recruits that were loitering over in a corner. "Any of you know Keran? His sister is looking for him."

"Macha? We know. She's been coming here every day trying to find out what happened to him."

"Which we're not allowed to talk about," said the female recruit instantly.

"To the void with that!" exclaimed a second recruit. "Nobody's doing anything to find him! Maybe it's time to look for outside help."

"But our orders," whined the third, not sounding particularly enthusiastic.

"I just want to help Keran."

"I heard there's some new initiation and if you're not strong enough, you don't come back."

"Figures," said Anders bitterly. He appeared to be casing the place.

"Wilmod came back," said the woman.

"What?" asked the second recruit.

"He did. I saw him this morning."

"Can I talk to him?"

"He left Kirkwall. To clear his head, he said."

"Why didn't you tell us?" asked another of the three recruits.

"Knight Captain Cullen told me not to, right before he went chasing after Wilmod."

"And that's not suspicious at all."

"You might be able to catch up to them if you hurry."

We found Wilmod and Cullen pretty quickly after leaving the city. Cullen appeared to be questioning Wilmod at swordpoint. "Templars torture their recruits now?" I commented. "Wow, that's so typical."

"Stay out of our business!" snapped Cullen.

Wilmod laughed creepily. "You have struck me the last time you pathetic human!" That didn't sound good. At all. Wilmod morphed into an abomination, several other demons rising out of the ground around him.

"Maker preserve us!" Cullen looked horrified.

I automatically reached for my staff, then remembered the Templar standing right next to me and threw a dagger at Wilmod instead.

It was a lot harder to kill the demons than it would normally have been, since I couldn't use magic with a Templar standing right there.

"I knew!" gasped Cullen when the fight was over. "I knew he was up to something! But- this- is it even actually possible?"

"In this town? Nothing surprises me anymore."

Cullen sighed. "I've been investigating missing recruits. Wilmod was the only one to come back, and I wanted to confront him quietly, not make a scene."

"So instead you nearly got yourself killed."

"Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to keep this quiet after all. It may have cost us one of our best recruits- Wilmod's friend Keran. The last they were seen, they were together at the Blooming Rose, but I didn't have any luck interrogating the- employees- there."

"They probably figured you would shut them down. I'd be willing to search there."

"The order would be in your debt, if you did." I twitched.

When we left Cullen, Carver began heading up the mountain instead of back down.

"Um, where are you going?" I asked.

He sighed. "Remember that amulet we promised to deliver to the Dalish? We're halfway there already and, as leery as I am of doing something for a creepy witch, I'd still rather not make her angry by failing to keep our promise to her. Besides, I heard that there were some of those Flint Mercenary Company people you wanted to kill near there."

"I'd mostly forgotten about the amulet," I admitted sheepishly.


	7. Chapter 7

Ch. 7: The Witch of the Wilds Again

We traveled most of the way up the mountain, stopping only to kill the mercenaries, who attacked us on sight anyway, before reaching a blockade with a pair of elves guarding the path.

"Where do you think you're going, shemlen?" Asked the male. "We don't want people like you here."

"Oh, that's nice. Kind of racist, but hey, I'm just here to deliver something to your keeper."

"Wait- you're the one Keeper Marethari told us about," said the female elf. "We expected you ages ago. Like, about a year."

"I guess you can come into camp," said the other elf grudgingly. "But I'll be watching you."

He led us over to a campfire where an elderly elven woman was standing, glaring at us suspiciously the entire time. She looked at us. "Ah, it's you. Finally, we expected you at least a year ago. Andaran'a'tishan. I am Keeper Marethari. Let me look at you." She peered into my face and her expression softened into a smile. "You have a light in your eyes, traveler. Do not let it go out. You will need it. Tell me how this burden fell to you, child."

"The amulet? It's not that much of a burden, really. The owner just asked us to deliver it to you in exchange for saving our lives. We were even coming to Kirkwall anyway, so it's not like it was much trouble."

"I honor you for bringing it to me, but your job isn't finished yet. You need to take it up to an altar at the top of the mountain and give it a Dalish rite for the departed."

"Um, I don't actually know any Dalish rites for the departed," I pointed out.

"I will send my First, Merrill, with you. She can do it. And when you go, take her with you."

That was surprising. "If that's what you want."

"it really isn't, but it is what she wants and, unfortunately, she is old enough to make her own life choices. Even if they are horrible, terrible, very bad, no-good ideas."

We found Merrill on the path up the mountain, sitting on the ground. When she saw us coming, she jumped up. "Oh! I didn't hear you. Anathera. Oh, I forgot to ask your names. That isn't rude, is it, asking a human their name? I'm Merrill. You probably knew that already, though. I'm rambling, sorry," she babbled.

It was actually kind of adorable. "It's fine. I'm Hawke."

Merrill looked relieved. "Oh, good. I'm not very experienced talking with your kind of people- humans, I mean. Ooh, the Keeper said you were from Ferelden. We are, too, I spent most of my life there. I miss it, do you miss it?"

"Could be worse." I shrugged. "Kirkwall's a good place for fresh starts."

"I hope so. We should go, Asha'bellanar is kind of impatient."

We made it up the mountain after being attacked by zombies every few steps and a close call in which Merrill nearly hit me with a spell instead of the zombie behind me. At the top, however re ran into a glowing magical barrier blocking the path. "I'll get rid of it!" Merrill announced, taking a knife, cutting a huge gash in her hand and flinging the blood on the barrier. "Ta da!"

Everyone else stared at her in horror. "So…" said Varric slowly. "I'm guessing that wasn't normal magic."

"That was a summoning!" said Anders. "You need blood magic for that! Are you crazy?"

"I know what I'm doing," said Merrill defensively. "The spirit helped us, didn't it?"

"Sure, demons are very helpful," I said sarcastically. "Right up until they possess you and turn you into a mindless monster that kills everything in its path."

"That won't happen to me!"

"I'm not going to win this argument, am I?" I asked rhetorically.

After killing our way past even more zombies, we got to the altar. Merrill placed the amulet on the altar and spoke a couple phrases. As soon as she was finished, there was a flash of light and Flemeth appeared standing behind the altar. "Ah," she sighed. "And here we are." That was unexpected.

Merrill instantly bowed. " Andaran'a'tishan, Asha'bellanar."

Flemeth looked at her curiously. "One of the People…I see. Do you know who I am, beyond that title?"

"Not really," admitted Merrill.

"Then stand. The people bend their knee too easily." Flemeth turned to look at the rest of us. "So refreshing to see someone who keeps their end of a bargain. I half expected my amulet to end up sold to some random merchant."

"Well, we did make a deal," I pointed out. "Though you might have mentioned you were inside the amulet I nearly had a heart attack."

"Just a piece, a small piece. A bit of security should the inevitable occur. And if I know my Morrigan, it already has."

"What are you?" asked Anders suspiciously. "A spirit? An abomination?"

"You would know all about spirits and abominations."

"Obviously. I am a mage." They looked at each other challengingly.

"I am a fly in the ointment," said Flemeth. "I am a whisper in the shadows. I am also an old, old woman. More than that you need not know. Destiny awaits us both, dear girl. And before I leave, a bit of advice." Flemeth turned to look out over the cliff. "We stand upon the precipice of change. The world fears the inevitable plummet into the abyss." She turned back to look at us. "Watch for that moment and when it comes do not hesitate to leap. It is only when you fall that you learn whether you can fly."

"Says the one who can turn into a dragon."

"We all have our own difficulties."

"Are we going to regret bringing her here?" asked Carver.

Flemeth looked at him. "Regret is something I know well. Take care not to cling to it till it poisons your soul. When the time comes for your regrets, remember me." She turned back to me. "Now is the time for me to go. You have my thanks. And my sympathy." Turning around, she transformed into the large dragon that we had first seen back in Lothering and flew away.

Now thoroughly disturbed, we walked back down the mountain until we reached the Dalish camp. "Ma seranas, child," said Marethari. "Your debt is paid. It isn't too late to change your mind, Merrill."

"Maybe, but I'm not going to. Let's go," announced Merrill.

As we walked away I saw Marethari look sadly after us.


	8. Chapter 8

Ch. 8: More Missing Persons Cases

When we got back to Kirkwall, we made sure to show Merrill to the elven alienage. "Is this really where the elves live?" she looked shocked.

Varric shrugged. "Not the prettiest part of Kirkwall, but at least it doesn't have a view of the giant chains."

"It seems so lonely!"

That wasn't the word that I would have used to describe it, but hey. "Just look at it as an adventure. Oh, who am I kidding, it'll be totally awful."

"Some adventurer I am," said Merrill, smiling weakly. "I just got here and I'm already thinking about going back. Will you visit? Please? I could use a friend."

I didn't really think associating with a blood mage was a good idea in a town full of Templars, but it would be like kicking a puppy to say no. "Of course I will, Merrill."

"Hey, what's going on over there?" I turned to look where Carver was pointing. There was a Templar talking to an elven woman. She seemed upset.

"I don't know." I walked over to them. "What's wrong?"

"My son's a mage. He ran away when I told the Templars about him," the woman explained.

"Gee, I wonder why?" I said.

"I'm telling you, we can only help if he turns himself in," said the Templar. The woman started crying. He sighed. "I'm leaving."

I felt a little bit sorry for her. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"You'd help after hearing that?" She looked at me more closely. "Oh! You're an apostate." Well, that made her more observant than about ninety-nine percent of people in Kirkwall. "I'm Arianni. My son, Feynriel- he's all I have. I hid him from the Circle, but his connection to the Fade was giving him nightmares- he kept having dreams of demons talking to him. I didn't want him to get possessed."

"Yeah, that would be bad. Any idea of where he went?"

"No," she said miserably. "His deadbeat human father, Vincento, might know."

We found Vincento in the marketplace. It took a bit to convince him to even admit that he had a son, but he ended up telling us that he had sent Feynriel to an ex-Templar named Samson who hung around Lowtown at night.

We didn't really have anything to do until night, so we went to show Merrill around a bit and ended up in the Hightown market. While Merrill was looking around in fascination, she found a poster hanging on a wall. "Oh, it says someone is missing!"

"Another one? Let me see." I went to look at the poster. "This is about the viscount's son. Ooh, reward!"

"At least this time it's not just about your hero complex," muttered Carver.

"For the hundredth time, I do not have a hero complex!"

"Ooh, are we rescuing someone?" asked Merrill excitedly.

I started toward the viscount's keep. Carver rolled his eyes and followed me, flirting awkwardly with Merrill. At least it was better than listening to her argue with Anders about blood magic like they had been doing earlier.

When we got to the keep, we found Seneschal Bran arguing with a very angry-seeming woman.

"I've told you. The viscount isn't seeing anyone."

"Fine!" She snapped. "Then tell him that I've tracked his son and the Qunari kidnapper to the Wounded Coast and am taking all my men to get him back."

"That seems a bit excessive." The woman stormed off. "What was her problem?" I asked. "She didn't seem like the 'rescuer' type."

Bran scowled. "She's just the sort of person I was worried we'd attract. Like I told everyone else, Viscount Dumar's son, Seamus, was kidnapped. Go look for him if you want to. I have certainly granted no exclusivity to the Winters and their violent approach."

"Why don't you ask the city guard to find him?" I asked. "Isn't that sort of their job?"

"Yes, why don't you?" Aveline repeated me, sounding angry.

"We don't want this getting out for political reasons."

"Erg. We'll find him."

"You can say it all you like, but it doesn't make it true," he said disapprovingly. "Good luck on the Wounded Coast."

That night we wandered around Lowtown looking for Samson. "You know," I commented after we ran into our third group of muggers without finding him. "It would have been really helpful if Vincento was more specific about where this ex-Templar fellow hangs out. Lowtown is kind of a big place."

"We aren't getting any sleep again, are we?" asked Carver sadly.

"You don't actually have to be here you know," I pointed out, killing the last attacker.

A dwarf peered out from around a cart. "Are they gone now?"

"Yes."

"You wouldn't happen to be the human Atheneril said was looking for work, would you?"

That sparked a memory. "Oh, yeah. You're Anso, right. Atheneril sent me a letter about you."

"Oh, good. Some property of mine got misplaced- by which I mean stolen. The men who were supposed to deliver it ran off with it instead and I need help getting it back."

"What kind of property?" I asked suspiciously.

"It's valuable. And illegal. And my client wants it very, very badly." Anso chuckled nervously. "You know how those Templars can be."

"So in other words, it's lyrium. Fine, but I do expect to get paid for this."

"I will- probably. They're in a house in the alienage. You'll be able to tell who they are because they aren't elves."

We began walking toward the alienage. "He is so not going to pay us," complained Carver. "Besides, I thought we were looking for Samson."

"Actually, we were wandering aimlessly because we didn't have any idea where Samson is."

We found the house and the thieves, but once we had killed them and looked in the box that should have contained the lyrium, it was empty. "Oh, brilliant," I muttered, slamming the lid in disgust. "I guess we should go tell Anso the bad news."

As soon as we exited the house, however, we were ambushed by a large group of armored men accompanied by a mage in Tevinter –style robes who attacked us after confusedly commenting on our not being the person they were looking for.

When we started to leave the alienage, we were confronted by a man who glared at us, calling for reinforcements. He was answered by a second man staggering around the corner, covered in blood, before collapsing on the ground. He was followed by an elf with white hair and strange, faintly glowing tattoos covering him. "Your men are dead," he announced dramatically, "And your trap has failed. I suggest running back to your master while you still can."

"I'm not going anywhere, slave!" shouted the other. This seemed to be a bad idea. The elf's tattoos began glowing blue and he thrust his hand straight through the man's chest.

We stared at the elf with varying degrees of shock, horror, and indifference as he dropped the man's heart on the ground next to the body. "I am sorry. When I asked Anso to provide a distraction for the slavers, I didn't expect there to be so many of them."

"We're fine," I said faintly, still staring at the elf's blood-covered hands. Killing I was used to, ripping out hearts- not so much. "Really, we do this sort of thing all the time.

"That's impressive. I'm Fenris. These men were Imperial bounty hunters trying to take me back to Tevinter."

"We just killed slavers? Awesome!"

"I have met few in my travels who have sought more than personal gain," said Fenris- everyone ignored Carvers cough of 'hero complex'- "Thank you. If you don't mind, what was in the chest?"

"It was empty. Why?"

"It was too much to hope for. I still had to know, though."

I really wanted to know what he'd hoped would be in the chest now. "You could have just asked for help, you know." We once again ignored Carver commenting on my alleged hero complex.

"Maybe," said Fenris. "I still need your help actually. Danarius, the magister after me, is still in the city, and I need to confront him before he finds out what happened and runs away."

"Okay," I said cheerfully.

"Hero complex," said Carver, again.

We followed Fenris to Danarius' Hightown mansion.

"Well, I haven't seen anyone go in," he said.

"We've only been here for about two seconds," I pointed out.

He glared at me.

Almost as soon as we entered the mansion we were set upon by shades. "Figures Danarius would send spirits to do his dirty work for him," snarled Fenris. "Your pets can't stop me Danarius!"

I rolled my eyes. "I'm pretty sure he can't hear you."

As it turned out, Danarius was not actually in the mansion. After searching the entire place from top to bottom and killing every demon inside, we were forced to conclude that he had already left. Fenris went storming outside in a huff.

We followed him after looting the place to find him standing against the wall, brooding. "It never ends. I escaped a land of dark magic only to have it haunt me at every turn. It is a plague burned in my flesh and my soul. And now I find myself in the company of yet another mage. I saw you casting spells in there. Tell me, what kind of mage are you? What is it that you seek?"

"Um, is this going to be a problem? Because I can always just go…"

"I have a problem with magic. Sorry, I must seem ungrateful. I owe you. If you ever need help with anything, just ask."

"Well, I am planning an expedition to the deep roads…" How is it that I always end up collecting the crazy ones?


	9. Chapter 9

Ch. 9: Hawke's Hero Complex

Ironically, we ran straight into Samson immediately after we had returned to Lowtown and decided to go to the bar and get drunk instead of continuing to search fruitlessly for him.

"You're looking for that boy, right?" he asked "Feyn- something or other. Can't help you." I sighed and handed him a few silver. "He came to me a while ago. Didn't have any money to pay me with, so I sent him away."

Anders glared at Samson in disgust. "I pity any mage who has to rely on you for help."

Samson didn't seem particularly bothered by this. "I sent him and a girl to a ship captain I know, Reiner. I think he might have taken them both captive instead, though."

"Why am I not surprised?"

"Rumor is he has them locked inside a warehouse. You might want to find them before they get ransomed to the Templars or sold to slavers or something."

When we got to the warehouse we found a group of thugs menacing a young woman in mage robes, who was calling out for help. "Hold on, we'll help you," I cried out to her. The woman immediately turned into an abomination. "Well, that was pointless."

"See?" said Fenris, who was still following us. "This is why mages are a problem."

We had to kill not only the thugs, but also the woman and the zombies that she somehow summoned before searching the place.

"I found a note. Which says exactly where they sent Feynriel," said Carver. "That's convenient. Stupid of them, but convenient."

Anders searched the body of the woman, looking for some form of identification. He stared at the letter from her pocket. "She was Ser Thrask's daughter? I knew Templars were hypocrites."

"That's always been pretty obvious," I pointed out. "I mean, the way they use those phylacteries to find escaped mages? That's totally blood magic."

"Huh. That's what Olivia always said."

"The woman we just killed?" asked Merrill in confusion, looking up from the letter, which she'd taken from Anders.

"No, our cousin Olivia," explained Carver. "Anders and Isabella both know her, so she comes up occasionally."

We went straight to Darktown to find the slavers that Reiner had sent Feynriel to. As soon as we got near the group of slavers, the leader smirked. "Look what we have here. Volunteers. Let's see what the Tevinters will pay for them."

I stared at him. "Do you say that to every random stranger who walks by? That's kind of pathetic. Also stupid. I mean, I'd make a terrible slave. I've got this pesky little habit of killing slavers. Painfully. With fire." The slavers attacked. I killed them painfully. With fire.

"Looks like their hideout is out on the Wounded Coast," said Carver after searching the lead slaver's body. "That's pretty far away. We definitely aren't getting any sleep tonight."

"We should go now, before they have a chance to move Feynriel and we lose track of him."

"Hero complex."

On the way to find Feynriel on the Wounded Coast, we walked straight into a group of people led by a dwarf being attacked by giant spiders. They weren't doing too well. "Argh! I hate these things," I yelled, blowing them up with a fireball.

"You do?" asked Anders.

"They're spiders bigger than my dog. That's just wrong. You alright?" I asked the dwarf.

"No thanks to these idiots," he complained, gesturing at his men, who looked offended. "Can't hire a decent mercenary at a bargain anymore. You though, you're just what a man needs. A skilled enthusiast."

"I'm not particularly enthusiastic," I pointed out. "I just really hate giant spiders. And Templars. And slavers. And…"

"She has a hero complex," Carver helpfully supplied. I glared at him.

"My name's Javaris Tintop," introduced the dwarf. "I need forward thinkers to help court the Qunari."

"Court the Qunari?" exclaimed Varric. "Maker, think of the children!"

Tintop ignored him. "Those Qunari down in Kirkwall have an explosive powder that can blow things up without lyrium or magic or anything. I want to buy the formula from them."

"Oh, yeah," said Anders. "I heard of that stuff. It's why no one wants to mess with the Qunari. Except Tevinter."

"Somehow," I said, "I don't think the Qunari were too eager to sell you their powder, considering the huge military advantage it gives them over everyone else."

"The Arishok said I was unworthy," said Tintop sulkily. "and that only their outcasts, the Tal-Vashoth, were that mercenary. So of course I went to talk to them, only they just tried to kill me on sight, so then I figured that maybe the Arishok would sell me the powder if I got rid of something that bothered him more than, well, me."

"By which you mean the Tal-Vashoth."

"Exactly! You up for some paid hunting?"

I rolled my eyes. "This seems a bit ridiculous, but as long as I am, in fact, paid, then sure."

We found the slavers' hideout after wandering around a bit and getting rid of a serial killer hiding out in some old ruins and a bunch of dragons infesting a mine. We killed some of the slavers, but the rest somehow had the presence of mind to take Feynriel hostage. That was actually sort of intelligent. "Varric, help me out here!" I hissed quietly.

"If I were you, I wouldn't be threatening the viscount's son."

"What?" said the slaver holding the knife to Feynriel, nervously.

"Oh, I suppose you just got a tip from a slaver you were selling mage-flesh cheap. You never thought to ask if it was actually the viscount's son by his elven mistress, the boy who he had sworn to protect at all costs."

The slaver backed away. "I don't want any trouble with the Free Marches. Take him back to his father." He threw a sack of money at me and ran away.

"Why didn't you kill him?" complained Fenris.

"I was blinded by his stupidity. Varric, I love you, but that particular story was rather weak." Varric had the grace to look embarrassed.

"Who are you?" asked Feynriel suspiciously. "Are you with the Templars?"

"Actually, your mother sent us."

"Same difference. I can't believe her. First it's 'I'll love you and protect you', then I have some bad dreams and it's 'off to the Templars'."

"Not necessarily. I'm here to help you, Feynriel."

"Why? You don't even know me."

"I am you," I said, summoning mana to my hand and allowing it to glow briefly. Feynriel looked impressed.

"Also, she has a hero complex," added Carver.

"You're the first other mage I've ever met," admitted Feynriel. "Most of them are locked up. Could you help me reach the Dalish? That's where I was trying to go."

"It would be kind of hard on you, seeing as you're half human," I pointed out.

"Better than the Circle."

"It would be your humanity that marks you among the Dalish," said Merrill, "not your magic. But I think they would take you." She smiled.

"So you'll help me, then?"

"Sure. Ask for Keeper Marethari, she knows us."

"Thank you so much!" Feynriel ran off.

"I disapprove of this greatly," complained Fenris.

By the time we got back to Kirkwall and told Arianni what had happened to her son, it was almost morning. "I can't believe we just spent an entire night doing detective work," whined Carver when we got back to Gamlen's house.

"You really need to complain less," I said grumpily, falling into bed.


	10. Chapter 10

10

I woke up late that afternoon and went around to finish up various miscellaneous errands, including going over to the Chantry and telling Sebastian, the archer with the nice voice, that I had finally killed off the last of the Flint Company Mercenaries that he wanted dead and informing the owner of the mine that we had cleared out that the dragons were gone. Somehow, the mine owner ended up giving me half-shares in the mine. Weird. Also, the place was apparently cursed because a crazy Tevinter had killed a bunch of slaves there back when the Tevinters were still occupying Kirkwall. I was beginning to think that the rampant insanity in this city wasn't actually a recent development.

I thought about trying to convince everyone to go back to the Wounded Coast to kill Tal-Vashoth and look for Seamus Dumar, but I was pretty sure that Carver, at least, would kill me if I tried to get him to do anything after the all-nighter we had just pulled. After a while I ended up wandering down to Darktown to visit Anders.

"Hey," I said cheerfully, walking into the clinic.

He smiled. "You know, I had another friend like you once. She was constantly getting into trouble and dragging everyone around her along for the ride."

"Let me guess, her name was Olivia,"

"Got it in one. I should apologize. I got a bit weighty the last time we talked. I'm sorry for putting that on you."

"It's fine. I mean, you'd just had to kill someone you cared about because he'd been made Tranquil. You had a right to be upset. Besides, I don't mind. If you need to get anything off your chest, I can listen. You can tell me anything."

"Anything? Be careful what you offer. I just hope I didn't seem too selfish when I told you about Justice. I figured a willing host, a friend… it had to be better than playing the demon and haunting some corpse."

"Not so much 'selfish' as 'impulsive'. But hey, at least he got a nice body."

Anders looked upset. "Are you hitting on me? Don't go there… it won't end well. I don't want to hurt you."

"Oh come on, you aren't seriously saying you're afraid of getting in a relationship because it opens the possibility of going badly, despite the fact that there's an equal probability that it won't?"

"No. A year ago, maybe we could have had something, but I'm not that man anymore. I'll break your heart, and that would kill me as surely as the Templars." He sat down on a barrel, looking depressed.

I rolled my eyes. For some reason, I seemed to be doing that a lot lately. "Well, sitting here debating philosophy isn't going to help anything. Let's go find something interesting to do."

I ended up dragging him, along with, Varric, Isabella, and Fenris, who had literally nothing else to do except sit around in Danarius' mansion, out to the wounded coast.

By the time we had finished killing off all the Tal-Vashoth, I was seriously regretting bringing both Anders and Fenris along at the same time. They had spent the entire trip bickering about mages.

"Will you two quit it?" I finally asked, exasperated.

"So you agree with me?" Anders and Fenris said simultaneously.

"Oh, I agree with Anders. Fenris, mages are not inherently evil and freeing them will not necessarily result in them taking over. It is, in fact, possible to have a society that does not involve oppression of any ethnic group. It's just that nobody has tried to create one before."

Anders gazed at me adoringly while Fenris looked skeptical.

"NOOOOO!"

I instantly turned toward the sound of the scream. "Come on! It sounds like someone is in trouble!"

"You know," said Varric conversationally, "I'm beginning to see why Little Hawke says she has a hero complex."

The scream had come from a young man in expensive yet painfully clashing clothes kneeling on the ground next to a dead Qunari with that unpleasant Winters woman we had run into at the keep standing over them. "Ashaad!

"You killed him!"

She did not seem particularly sympathetic. In fact, her reply was downright nasty. "Time to drag you home, Seamus," she added after she was finished insulting him.

"Bit rough for a rescue," I commented.

"Competition? Go away. The Winters- I- have already claimed him."

Seamus glared at her. "You are not getting rewarded for murdering my friend! I'm going back with these people." She attacked us.

It was two dozen on five. They didn't stand a chance.

We took Seamus back to his father's office at the keep, where the viscount seemed extremely relieved to see him. "The Winters killed my friend," complained Seamus.

Viscount Dumar looked confused. "I thought you were captured alone."

"Ashaad was a Qunari. And I wasn't captured, I left!"

"Well, the official story is that you were abducted. So many people hate the Qunari, I'd rather not have it spread around that my own son is a Qunari fan." Seamus looked furious.

"Yeah, maybe I should go," I said awkwardly, pointing over my shoulder at the door and beginning to back away.

They suddenly realized that I was still there. "Oh, thank you," said the viscount, handing me the reward, "Bran! Get her out of here so I can continue arguing with Seamus."

After we left the keep, we went down to the Qunari compound at the docks to find Javaris Tintop. "I am so not going in there," announced Isabella at the entrance.

I shrugged. "Okay." She scurried off.

"What's up with her?" asked Anders.

"No idea." We went into the compound.

"There you are," hissed Tintop when we reached him. "I've been waiting for, like twenty-four hours."

"We had more important stuff to do. Like investigating a couple missing persons cases."

"Whatever."

The Arishok arrived and sat down in the huge throne-like chair at the top of the stairs. Fenris stepped out from behind me and said something in the Qunari language. "The Qun from an elf?" said the Arishok in surprise. "The madness of this…place."

"Friend of yours, Fenris?" I asked.

"Friend of no one," he replied darkly.

"Well, that's cheering."

"Right," said Tintop. "Anyway, the Tal-Vashoth are all dead, so I'm here to open negotiations for the explosive powder like we agreed."

The Arishok looked at him impassively. "No."

"He's not getting it," Tintop whispered to me. "Make your chatty elf say something."

I looked at Fenris expectantly. "Qunari do not abandon their debts. I humbly request clarification."

"He imagined the deal for the gaatlok and invented a task to complete."

"Then we have wronged you," said Fenris politely. "Do you want us to kill him for you?"

"What!" exclaimed Tintop.

"You killed the Tal-Vashoth. He isn't good enough to be killed by you. He is unworthy. You however keep good company. Let him live. And leave."

We did.


	11. Chapter 11

11

We ended up going back to Gamlen's house to see if Carver was awake yet so we could drag him along with us, too. "Do you have to bring your weirdo friends in here?" complained Gamlen.

"Not really. Where's Carver?"

"He went off with that elf woman you two hang out with."

"Merrill?"

"Yes, her. Also, you got yet another letter. Which is completely unfair. The only letters I ever get are bills."

"Maybe you should try making more friends," I said, snatching the letter from him and tearing it open. "Oooh, a mysterious anonymous note saying that innocent lives are in danger and asking for help. Let's go!"

"That sounds a bit fishy," said Varric.

"Yeah, but now I'm insanely curious. Also, I've never gotten a mysterious anonymous note asking for help before."

We followed the badly-drawn map on the back of the note out to the wounded coast. "Maybe this is upside down," I muttered as we wandered around, lost. Busy staring at the map, I ran into someone. "Ser Thrask! Hello! Hey, can you read this map?"

"I don't need to; I sent you that note. Arianni told me that you sent her son somewhere better than the Circle. I was hoping you might be willing to show mages a kindness once more."

"What?" It wasn't the most eloquent answer, but I hadn't been expecting to hear something like that from a Templar.

"There is a group of apostates hiding in these caverns," he said gesturing to the cave entrance behind him.

Anders glared at him. "We are not going to kill apostates for you!"

"I meant I was hoping you would talk to them into surrendering peacefully before Ser Karras arrives with more Templars arrive and kills them all. They're already on their way."

"Of course! I don't want the apostates to be killed!" Anders smiled at me.

"Thank you," said Ser Thrask. "I'd talk to them, but they attack Templars on sight and I'd never be able to convince them that they're better of alive in the Circle than free and dead."

"Yeah, as long as they're alive they still have a chance to escape again!" Ser Thrask looked like he was beginning to second-guess his decision to ask me to come.

As soon as we entered the caverns we were attacked by zombies. "They've raised the bloody dead!" exclaimed Anders. "They must be truly desperate. Please tell me we aren't going to force these poor fools back into the Circle!"

"Nah, I was thinking we'd fake their deaths or something. We've already got plenty of corpses," I pointed out, gesturing to the no-longer-animated dead bodies.

A little further into the caverns, we ran into a young, nervous looking man. "Oh thank the Maker! Please tell me you're with the Templars! I just want to go back to the Circle, I never wanted this, not when he started making those…things."

"Who's he?"

"Decimus. This was his idea. He said that the Templars would assume we were blood mages anyway, so why not use blood magic. Then he cut his wrist and woke up all the skeletons in the caves."

"Typical," muttered Fenris.

"Decimus is wrong, unlike most forbidden things in the Circle, blood magic is actually evil, not just something that the Templars keep from us from spite."

"Yeah, that's how it goes, someone starts raising the dead and it's all downhill from there." I sighed. "Ser Thrask is waiting right outside the caverns. You won't be in immediate danger of dying out there."

The next cave over contained the main group of apostates. "Look!" shouted a bearded man. "Templars! They're here to take us back to the circle!"

I looked at myself, Anders, Varric, and Fenris. "How in the world could you possibly mistake us for Templars? Two of us are obviously mages, and the Chantry is way too racist to let an elf or dwarf become a Templar."

"Decimus, look!" cried the tattooed woman standing next to him. "They aren't Templars."

"Yeah, you shouldn't assume that anyone who wanders through here is a Templar. Seriously. Everyone and their mother goes through this cave system for some reason or another. We could be innocent smugglers for all you know."

"Innocent smugglers?" asked Varric. "I think that's an oxymoron."

Decimus did not seem to be paying attention. "Who cares what shield they carry? If they challenge us-"

"We really aren't," I cut in.

"-the dead themselves will meet the call!" finished Decimus. There was a swirl of blood magic and every skeleton in the cavern stood up and began lurching toward us.

I froze Decimus in ice before he could use any more blood magic and we took out the skeletons as quickly as possible before finishing him off. The tattooed woman ran up to him. "Decimus! You killed him!" She glared at me. "I saw what you are. How could you kill one of your own for daring to defy the Templars?"

"Actually, I killed him because he was trying to murder me."

She looked sad. "I told him that once he used blood magic that was all anyone would see."

"Like you haven't used it as well," said Fenris.

"I haven't, I swear! We only want our freedom! Please, help us- if you don't the Templars will kill us all because Decimus was a blood mage."

I sighed. "Well, it's not like the Templars don't already hate me."

"Great! The first step is to kill that Templar outside so no one will follow us."

"That is a horrible plan."

"It's better than letting all these people get killed," said Anders.

"Yes, let's go and murder a Templar," said Fenris sarcastically. "That'll help." He and Anders glared at each other.

"How about we just fake your deaths instead. Does anyone here know fire magic?" The tattooed woman nodded. "Good." I gestured at the skeletons on the ground. "Burn these so you can't tell how long ago they died and plant a couple of your possessions on the ground around them. We'll go tell Ser Thrask you're dead."

When we got out of the caverns, Ser Karras had already arrived and was arguing with Ser Thrask. "Are you seriously telling me that this is all that's left of the apostates?" he asked incredulously, looking at the young mage who had gone to find Ser Thrask.

"I ran away when they started to use blood magic," the mage interjected helpfully.

"And who are you?" asked Ser Karras, looking at my group.

"Um, Varric…"

Varric stepped forward. "What's the matter Ser Thrask? Did the Knight-Commander forget to tell Ser Karras that Enchanter Hawke came from Ferelden to help root out rebel mages?"

"Er, yes, I was just about to tell him," said Ser Thrask, looking confused yet still playing along.

Varric continued. "We've completed our investigation of those caves. There is no one left inside." Technically true.

"Their leader got away," I added helpfully.

"It looked like the back passages headed out to the coast," continued Varric.

"We can probably still catch him if we go around the caverns; it's faster," suggested Ser Thrask.

"Men, search the coast!" called Ser Karras. "Thank you, Enchanter Hawke. It is unusual that a mage is willing to cooperate with the Templars." He hurried off.

"Thank you, friend," added Ser Thrask before following him.

"Wow," said the tattooed woman, coming out from the mouth of the cave. "I honestly didn't expect that to work. I didn't think any of us would leave those caverns alive."

"Officially, you're dead," I pointed out.

"Thank you. Here, take my staff. I want you to have it in thanks for saving us. Also because it says 'Starkhaven' on it and that's kind of a giveaway if I'm going to be on the run." She and the other mages hurried away in the opposite direction from the Templars.


	12. Chapter 12

12

That night I dragged everyone over to the Blooming Rose to ask about the missing Templars and Ninette de Carac.

"Why is it that we're wandering around at night again so soon?" complained Carver. "My sleep schedule is going to be completely thrown off at this rate."

"Because there are people missing and the longer they stay missing the more likely they are to be dead when we find them."

"This is embarrassing," said Aveline. "What if someone I know sees me here?"

I ignored her in favor of going over to the bookkeeper. "Hello. You're Viveka, right? I'm looking for a couple of missing Templar recruits. They were last seen here."

"Who? We do a lot of business with the Tempars."

"Wilmod and Keran. It's really important. There are a lot of missing Templars and every minute they're missing makes it more likely that they'll be killed."

"You don't need to get all melodramatic on me." Ouch. That was kind of bad. Viveka flipped through the record book. "Wow, Wilmod was in here a lot. How did he even have time to be a Templar? Here it is. They both last saw Idunna the Exotic Wonder from the East. She's upstairs if you want to talk to her."

"Thank you."

"No problem. You didn't hear this from me, though."

"Got it."

"Hey!" exclaimed Carver as we were heading toward the stairs. "Isn't that Uncle Gamlen?" I looked where he was pointing. It was, in fact, our uncle. Carver wandered over to talk to him.

"I do not want to be part of this conversation," I announced.

We went upstairs and found Idunna. "Do you remember a Templar named Wilmod? Or Keran?"

"Nope." She said instantly. "Never met 'em"

"Right. I know you did meet Wilmod. Often."

"Questions are boring," she said sitting down on the bed and patting it is a seductive manner. "Why don't we do something more fun."

"Yeah, no. How about you just answer my question."

"Answer one of my questions first. Who told you about little old me?"

I tried to say that I was the one asking questions here, but I felt dizzy and what came out of my mouth was. "Viveka. She showed me the records." Hazily, I knew that wasn't right.

"So Viveka sold me out? I'll take care of her. Just do one more thing for me," she said smoothly. "Draw your blade, and bring it gently across your throat."

My hand automatically pulled out my knife and held it up to my neck. This definitely wasn't right. I felt a strong impulse to do as she said. My hand quivered there as I fought my way through fuzziness and confusion. Suddenly, everything snapped back into focus. She had just used mind control on me. The confusion was replaced by a feeling of panic mixed with rage. I shakily moved my knife away from my own throat and plunged it into Idunna's chest. Behind me, my companions blinked and shook themselves.

"What just happened?" asked Varric. "I feel like such an idiot."

"That was blood magic!" I said angrily. "That…" I couldn't think of anything adequate to describe her. "Argh!" I began sorting through the papers on Idunna's desk. There was a note with a map to someplace in the undercity. I instantly felt a wave of vicious satisfaction. "And once again the idiocy of Kirkwall's criminals pays off…for us."

I stomped out of the room, clutching the map in a tight, angry grip as we went back downstairs.

Carver looked up from where he was talking to Uncle Gamlen. "What happened?" he asked, taking a look at my face.

"Idunna turned out to be a blood mage," answered Varric. "She tried to use mind control to make Hawke kill herself."

Carver looked horrified.

"It didn't work, obviously. She's out for blood, now, though."

"Wait- did she talk to Jethann yet?"

"Nope."

Carver sighed. "I'd better go do that instead, then. Otherwise, she'll make us come back here later."

"I'll go with you," offered Isablella.

"Me too!" said Merrill, looking at Carver adoringly.

"We'll catch up to you later," Carver told Varric. "Where are you headed?"

"The Undercity."

"Got it." Carver led Isabella and Merrill back upstairs.

As we were leaving, Gamlen stared after us. "Mind control? Does Leandra know how dangerous this private detective gig of Dora's is?" He groaned. "What is wrong with this family?"


	13. Chapter 13

13

We found Idunna's compatriots after killing our way through the dozens of demons that they had summoned to protect themselves. The lead blood mage appeared to be a woman with ashy colored skin and for some reason, white lips. "Oh look," she said happily when we appeared. "More vessels for our experiments. The demons will be so pleased."

Anders rolled his eyes. "Always with the demons. Can't you people say no?"

The blood mage seemed offended. "I'm not some hopeless waif who ran crying to a demon. I sought them out!"

"That's kind of worse," I pointed out. "I'm going to kill you now." I sent a wall of ice at the blood mages.

Instantly, they drew their staves and began firing back. "Kill the vessels only if you have to!" shouted the crazy leader. I responded by shooting a fireball at her head.

"I really hate blood mages," I announced when the fight was over. "So, where's Keran?"

"Not sure, but I'd guess that he's the man in the middle of that weird swirling mist a few feet above the floor," said Anders, pointing.

"Good point."

The swirling mist evaporated, likely due to the death of the blood mages, and the man inside, who looked enough like Macha for me to be reasonably certain that he was Keran, fell to the ground. "Keran?"

"Oh, thank the Maker," he said, standing up.

"The question is," said Varric, "Is it only Keran, or is it Keran plus one? A very nasty plus one."

"Good point. Anders, can you tell if he's possessed?"

"Oh, sure." Anders' eyes glowed blue and he shot a bolt of blue light at Keran which passed harmlessly through the Templar. "Yep, just Keran. If there was a demon in there it would have automatically defended itself."

"I guess you're good to go, then," I told Keran cheerfully. "I should probably tell the Templars what they were up to here, but you're free to go. You should probably head home; your sister's been worried about you."

Carver met us outside the blood mages' hideout with Isabella and Merrill. "There you are. I talked to Jethann for you. He sent me to a Templar named Emeric who was wandering around down here looking for Ninette and another missing woman, a mage named Mheren. He thinks the disappearances are linked."

"Oh. Thanks."

"I only did it so we wouldn't have to backtrack later. Emeric had a lead on the missing women, a foundry down in Lowtown. I promised to look into it since I figured that you'd make us as soon as you found out. Because of your hero complex."

"All right, let's go look into it. And I don't have a hero complex."

"You keep saying that, but everything you do contradicts you."

On the way to the foundry we walked past a woman in Chantry robes who was announcing loudly that she had money. A thug walked up to her. "You'll pay well for completing a job? How about we step into this dark alley and you show me the money."

"Okay," said the woman agreeably. I facepalmed. It seemed the only reasonable response to such blatant stupidity.

"And natural selection strikes again," commented Isabella.

"Another sad Lowtown tale in the making," said Varric. "As if we don't already have enough of them."

"I suppose we should probably stop her from becoming another statistic," I sighed.

"Also we have to go that way to get to the foundry," added Varric.

We followed the woman into the alley, where she was being attacked by the thug and his friends, who I immediately froze in ice.

"Thank you for your intervention," said the woman. "I am out of my element."

"You're only just now realizing that?" I asked incredulously.

"I needed to come here to find the sort of person I need someone with skill and integrity."

"Integrity? In Lowtown?"

She ignored me. "Perhaps someone who might rush to another's defense- hint, hint." She handed me a slip of paper with an address written on it. "If you're willing and capable, meet me here in an hour."

"Sorry, do I know you? I save from muggers and we're suddenly working together?"

"You're in Lowtown," she said disdainfully. "What grand scheme could I be interrupting?"

"Looking for several missing women who were probably kidnapped by a serial killer, actually. Now if you'll excuse me, the only reason I came into this alley is I have to investigate that building that I can't get to without going past you. Goodbye," I said, brushing past her with an expression of disdain equal to hers. "Yeesh, what a…ugh!"

When we entered the foundry, a there was a man standing on a balcony on the opposite side of the building. Upon seeing us, he instantly turned and ran. We started to chase after him, but were attacked by shades, and by the time we killed them the man was gone.

Searching the foundry, we found nothing but a sack containing a few bones and a severed hand wearing an Orlesian ring with the name Ninette engraved on the inside. There was no sign of where the man had gone or what had happened to the rest of Ninette's body. I sighed and carefully wrapped up the hand, bones and ring separately. "We should give the ring back to Ghyslain. And Emeric needs to see the hand and the bones. At the very least it's evidence."

We left the foundry. "There's still time to go see what that woman in Chantry robes wanted," said Isabella.

"Why should I care," I said grumpily. "She was totally rude."

"Money," answered Isabella promptly.

"I'm kind of curious," admitted Merrill.

"I bet Carver will want to go to bed, though," I said.

"If Merrill's curious we should check it out," said Carver.

"Fine, but you don't get to complain about this," I announced.

We found the address the woman had given us pretty easily, since it happened to be across the square from Gamlen's house. When we entered, a Templar standing next to the woman pointed a sword threateningly at us. "You came, good." said the woman.

"Yeah, the foundry lead was a dead end. What do you want?" I asked bluntly.

"It's an escort. I need someone of limited notoriety who will not link this to me."

"Thus the random stranger aspect. Get to the point."

She opened a door into the next room, revealing a Qunari whose lips had been stitched closed. "My name is sister Petrice. This is my charge. Would even a Templar bind a mage like this? A survivor of infighting with their Tal-Vashoth outcasts. I call him Ketojan, a bridge between worlds. The viscount would just return him to the other Qunari to appease them. I would see him free, but nobody must know I was involved. I need you to sneak him out of Kirkwall through the Undercity using my secret passage down there."

"We have to help him!" exclaimed Anders instantly.

"His name is Saarebas," said Fenris. "Not Ketojan. And he won't appreciate this."

"Okay, fine," I said, sighing. "You're incredibly rude and obviously have a huge superiority complex, based on the way that you treated us earlier, and I feel rather uncomfortable imposing my own morals on a culture I know nothing about, but somehow I suspect that not helping you will ultimately cause more trouble than otherwise."

"Mages among the Qunari are even more oppressed than we are," said Anders. "I hadn't even thought about that."

"One impossible task at a time," I said quickly, before he could decide he needed to completely restructure Qunari society, too. "And what did I just say about imposing your own morals on other cultures? At least take the time to learn about their belief system before judging them."

"But that would probably involve talking to Fenris!"

"Moving on," I said quickly, heading over to Petrice's secret passage before another fight could break out.

The Qunari followed us silently through the Undercity, standing mutely while we killed our way past the giant spiders that seemed to infest this particular route. "You know what?" said Isabella. "I bet this is the real reason Sister Petrice didn't want to come down here herself."

"Always a possibility," I admitted. "Man, I hate these things. There's just something wrong about having spiders larger than my dog."

As soon as we left the city, we were surrounded by a large group of Qunari. "Hold, basra vashedan," said the leader. Despite having the distinct feeling that I had just been insulted, I stopped. "The members of this Keratam were killed by Tal-Vashoth, but their disposal leads only here, to Saarebas and you."

"I don't know anything a about that," I said, shrugging. "I just came from the opposite direction."

"It doesn't matter. You're still here with Saarebas. Give him back."

"Oh yeah? And what if he doesn't want to go?" I asked.

"Saarebas, show your will remains bound to the Qun!" called the qunari. The Saarebas knelt, growling in his throat. "He has only followed you because he wants to be led! He is allowed no other purpose!"

"Why do you treat your mages like this, anyway?" I asked.

"They are dangerous. Their power draws on demons and comes from chaos and destruction."

"So in other words, you're scared of them."

"Like so many others," said Anders sadly.

"They are dangerous and contagious."

I blinked. "As a mage, I can honestly say that magic is not contagious. Seriously. Where did you even get that idea?"

"I'm also a mage, and I agree with her," announced Anders.

"And me," added Merrill helpfully.

The qunari looked horrified. "You are Saarebas? I talked to you! I'm going to catch magic! Attack!" He waved some sort of metal rod at the Sarrebas, who collapsed, covered in a crackling lattice of light. I froze the qunari in a wall of ice before they could get near me with their pointy spears and dashed backward to snipe at them while Aveline, Carver, and Fenris engaged the qunari head on.

After the fight was over I picked up the metal rod and poked at it. The light surrounding Saarebas disappeared and he stood up. "I thank you. You are now basvaarad, worthy of following. But I know the will of Arvaraad. I must return. It is the will of the Qun."

"Oh so now you're just going to go and accept death after everything?"

Saarebas walked over to the cliff overlooking the ocean. "I do not want to die I want to live by the Qun."

"Which means dying."

"Yes. Is that so hard to grasp?"

"You know what, fine," I said, giving up. "I can't exactly stop you from killing yourself. I was only supposed to get you out of the city, anyway."

"You know of certainty and borders. You are closer to the qunari than you think. Your role would change little if you accepted the Qun." He handed me a small amulet. "Take this secret thing basvaraad. Remember this day." The Saarebas set himself on fire and fell, dead.

"But, he was free!" exclaimed Aveline. "I don't get it!"

"Neither do I," I admitted. I didn't think I would ever understand it. I didn't like the feeling. "Petrice set a trail leading straight to us."

"If this was her doing, I'd like a few words with her," said Anders angrily.

"As would I."


	14. Chapter 14

14

When we got back, Petrice was scouring the house where we had met with her for any signs that she had been there. "Going somewhere?" I asked.

"Oh, you're back. How'd it go?"

"Perfectly well until we were ambushed."

"Oh, no," said Petrice with exaggerated concern.

"Drop the act. We know that this was a set-up," said Aveline.

"Why?" I asked.

"Perhaps in a hypothetical situation if some citizens of Kirkwall were to be killed helping an abused mage escape the qunari then it would make the higher-ups doubt appeasement as a policy toward the qunari. Hypothetically. Maybe it was a bit rushed, but you can't prove anything anyway. All you have is a bunch of dead qunari and the word of a qunari sympathizer."

"And a member of the Guard," I added, pointing at Aveline. "Also, the only qunari sympathizer here is Fenris. The rest of us don't actually care one way or another."

"You still can't prove anything!"

"Unfortunately not. It's too bad. You've made an enemy tonight. Now just pay me and be done with it."

"It doesn't matter. You aren't actually important. Here!" she flung the coins at my head, stomping out the back door with the Templar.

"We'll see her again, guaranteed," said Isabella.

"Unfortunately, you're probably right."

The next morning, we went to make sure that Knight-Captain Cullen knew about the blood mages. He looked suitably horrified to when I told him what had happened. Keran, who was there with Macha, seemed pretty traumatized. "Those blood mages are horrible. They won't stop until they've destroyed the Chantry and the Templars forever," he said.

"You have to admit that it's partially the Templars' fault, though," I told him. "People who have been treated as badly as mages have for as long as mages have eventually become desperate."

"How can you say that after what you've seen," Cullen asked, looking shocked.

"Yes, how can you say that to the Templar who's right in front of you?" Carver added.

"Mages can't be treated like people," said Cullen. "They aren't like you and me." Anders pulled out a bit of paper and a pencil and began writing down what he was saying. "They can light a city on fire in a fit of pique."

"So can a really determined arsonist," I pointed out. "Like I keep telling Fenris, there has to be a middle ground somewhere."

"Maybe you're right," admitted Cullen. "Maybe mages need better education on why the Chantry functions as it does! Yes! That's it!" Well, at least he was thinking now. "But Keran, until we're certain you aren't possessed, you're suspended."

Keran looked desperate. "But I need that position. Macha won't have enough money for food! And I've been training for five years."

"Keran isn't possessed," I cut in. "We checked."

"I really don't want to know how, do I?" asked Cullen.

"Not really."

"All right. Keran will be on probation until it's obvious that he isn't possessed, but he won't be suspended.

"Thank you!" said Macha. "I would give you a reward, but we don't have much money."

"I'll take care of it," said Cullen. "Thank you for helping."

I and took the money he handed me. "You're welcome," I said politely. "Anders what are you doing?"

"Nothing," he said, hiding the paper behind his back and looking innocent. "Certainly not transcribing this conversation to send to some friends in the Wardens so it'll eventually get back to Olivia, who Cullen's totally in love with."

"Wait," said Varric. "Cullen's in love with the Hero of Ferelden? Who's a mage. Even though he hates mages." He pulled out a notebook and flipped it open. "This is literary gold! Tell me more." Cullen began banging his head against a pillar.

The rest of us ignored the gleeful Varric and Anders and the exasperated Cullen and walked to the other side of the courtyard to talk to Emeric.

"We found Ninette and Mharen," I said, "Sort of. We found these in the foundry you told my brother about." I handed him the bag containing the bones and the hand.

Emeric looked somber. "These are human bones. I suppose there is no chance of finding Mharen or the others alive now."

"Unfortunately, they're probably dead. We saw someone in the foundry, but he ran away and we were attacked by shades before we could follow him."

Emeric sighed. "I'll bring this evidence to the city guard. Hopefully it'll be enough to convince them to investigate." I doubted it.

We went to Hightown and gave the ring to Ghyslain, neglecting to tell him all the grisly details about how we had found it. Somehow, I didn't think it would help him much.

"Well," I announced afterward. "We have officially finished every piece of business we had I think it's time to go talk to Bartrand."

"Finally!" exclaimed Carver.

"Where have you been for the past week, Varric?" asked Bartrand irritably. "What are you up to?"

Varric smirked. "I have, in fact, found us our new partner."

"Why would you do that?" yelled Bartrand. "I don't want to share our profits."

"Because," answered Varric, rolling his eyes, "if we don't get this expedition moving, then there won't be any profits to share."

"Fine," grumbled Bartrand.

"Ah, I feel so wanted," I muttered.

"You got the money?" Bartrand asked.

"Yes, in fact, I do." I handed him the sack where I was keeping the fifty sovereigns for the expedition.

"Wow, didn't expect that. Now I can finally pay these hirelings," Bartrand muttered to himself. "Alright, partner. Even share of the profit between you, me, and Varric. Now all we need is a decent entrance to the deep roads."

"Lucky I have these maps then," I said cheerfully, pulling them out of my pocket and waving them at him.

"What?" Bartrand looked shocked. "Where did you get those?"

Anders smirked. "A wizard did it." Well, a mage at least.

"Well," said Bartrand. "I guess we should get moving now. Hey men, get over here!" The hirelings that had been loitering around moved over to us and Bartrand began to give a would-be inspiring speech that no one really paid any attention to. "Hey! Where'd that old woman come from?"

I looked where he was staring. It was Mother. "Sorry, I need to talk to my children," she said, grabbing me and Carver and pulling us away from the group.

"How did you even find out we were leaving today?" I asked her incredulously.

"I'm a parent. I automatically know whenever my children are about to do something ridiculously dangerous. Now, Pandora, is Carver going to go with you?"

She used my first name. She must be serious. "That was always the plan," I pointed out. "Also, I hate that name."

"I'm going," said Carver. "Don't worry. I'll be fine."

"Carver…"

"Bye, see you later!" Carver dashed off to join the main group.

Bartrand looked at everyone. "We are not taking all these people with us."

"Fine, just Carver and Anders, then."

"Been a long time coming, hasn't it, brother," said Varric cheerfully, slinging an arm around Bartand's shoulder. Bartrand did not look amused.


	15. Chapter 15

15

Not far into the deep roads, we ran into a blockage where the path ahead had collapsed. "Useless!" shouted Bartrand, slugging the dwarf who had brought us the news. "What am I even paying you blighters for?" The other hirelings shrugged. "Great, now we're stuck. The side passages are way too dangerous to explore."

I rolled my eyes. "I can't believe you're giving up already. I'll look for a way around the collapse."

Anders groaned. "See? This is exactly why I left the Wardens. I hate the blighted deep roads. Why did I agree to come, again?"

"Because you have a crush on Hawke," answered Varric helpfully. "Also, I thought you left the Wardens because they made you get rid of your cat."

"That too. And the new commander replacing Olivia was a really annoying Orlesian."

A harried-looking dwarf ran up to me. "You're going into the side passages? You have to help! My son, Sandal, wandered off there. Anything could happen to him! I'm Bodhan, by the way," he added.

"Wait, Sandal?" asked Anders.

"You know him?" I asked him.

"No, but apparently he routinely turns up in the middle of battle zones surrounded by dead enemies."

Bodhan looked at me with a miserable expression. "All right, we'll look for him."

"Even though I'm sure he'll be fine," added Anders.

We found Sandal a ways down one of the side passages, surrounded by dead darkspawn, including an Ogre that looked like it had been turned to glass. "Called it!" announced Anders happily.

"Nice," I said to Sandal, impressed. "I wish I knew how you managed to kill all of them."

"So does everyone else," said Anders.

"Enchantment!" Sandal exclaimed happily, handing me a rune.

"And how in the world did you do that?" I asked in amazement, staring at the Ogre.

"Not enchantment!" said Sandal, grinning broadly and walking back the way that we had come.

After staring at the Ogre for several minutes, Varric, Carver, Anders, and I continued down the side passage. "I told you there was something strange about him," commented Anders.

We eventually cleared a path around the collapse, after killing a couple dozen darkspawn, an ogre, and a small dragon that was still several times larger than any of us. "What took you so long?" complained Bartrand.

"Yeah, you're welcome," I said, irritated at his attitude.

After a while, we arrived at the thaig we had been heading to. "Holy shit," breathed Varric. "What is this place?" It certainly didn't look like an ordinary thaig. There were no statues of paragons and the cavern was lit up with an eerie reddish glow coming from blocks of glowing red rock placed in stones that had been carved like lanterns.

"Is that lyrium?" I wondered, poking at one with a pencil. "It feels like lyrium, but it sure doesn't look like it. How did you even find this place, Bartrand?"

"I heard about it from old scavenger tales after the Third Blight. No one ever believed them."

"Well, it looks like they were right after all," said Varric. "We should explore, come on."

The hirelings began to set up camp, while the rest of us began to investigate the thaig. "Look, I found some sort of side passage," Called Carver.

"There appears to be a creepy red glow coming from that direction," I observed. "Let's go see!"

"You know," commented Varric, "this is just like the beginning of every cheesy horror story I've ever written. Or read, for that matter."

Anders facepalmed. "Why? Why did I agree to come here?" he groaned.

The passage led into a vast room lit by the red glow of the probably lyrium spiraling up the walls. There was a set of stone steps leading up to a higher level, in the center of which there was a single stone altar from which emanated more of the red glow.

We slowly climbed the steps and approached the altar, upon which there was a strangely shaped, red-glowing idol. "All right, that is definitely lyrium," I said. Slowly I reached for it. When I picked the idol up there was a flash of white light and an instant of buzzing in my head before everything returned to normal. "Weird," I muttered, handing the idol to Varric, who didn't seem to notice anything odd about it aside from the obvious strange shape and unusually colored lyrium aspects.

"Must be expensive. Hey Bartrand, catch," he said, carelessly tossing the idol to his brother, who caught it, eyes flashing red. "Let's see if we can find anything else!"

"Right, you do that," said Bartrand, sounding dazed. He turned around and began heading for the door.

"Um, am I the only one who noticed that there is something seriously bizarre about that idol?" I asked.

Varric blinked. "Huh?" Further discussion was cut off as Bartrand walked out the door and slammed it behind him, cackling madly. "Um, Bartrand, what are you doing?"

"Leaving you here to die so I can keep everything we found for myself," answered Bartrand.

"What! I'm your brother!" The only answer to Varric's shocked exclamation was the sound of insane laughter growing fainter and farther away from the other side of the door.

"Bartrand does realize that we still have the maps, doesn't he?" I asked no one in particular.

"Apparently not," said Carver, as Varric began swearing loudly and tugging on the door, which didn't open. "I guess we should start looking for another way out of here."

"There's an open door on the opposite side of the cavern leading to a pathway of some sort," said Anders. "It seems Bartrand didn't notice that, either."

"Idiot," I muttered.

"So the question is, what the hell are these things?" I yelled a few minutes later as we fought animated rocks in the pathway beyond the ancient thaig.

"They look like rock wraiths," said Varric, shooting one with an arrow that caused it to crumble back into a pile of stones, "but those are supposed to be imaginary!"

"Kind of like this thaig?" said Carver.

"Good point."

"Stop!" An exceptionally large rock creature formed out of the rubble at our feet. "I would not have these beings harmed without need."

"I think self-defense counts as need," I pointed out. "They're the ones who kept randomly attacking us."

"They profane aren't very smart," admitted the large rock wraith. "Mostly they just sit around and feed off the magic rocks."

"You mean the lyrium?" I asked dryly.

"Anders glared at the rock wraith, his eyes beginning to glow blue. "You're a demon feeding off their hunger!"

"That's a bit of a harsh description. Accurate, but harsh. Moving on from that, though, I can get you out of here. I know where the key to the door out of this thaig is."

"Don't do it," said Anders. "Demons will trip you up every time."

"I don't know," said Carver. "Maybe we should. I want out of here."

I smacked him on the back of the head. "Demons bad, remember. No deals." The rock wraith demon attacked.

A little farther along the pathway, we were attacked by an even larger rock wraith than the last one. "Okay, that's big," I said, staring up at it as it rolled itself into a ball and began to glow ominously. "Take cover!" I grabbed Varric and dove behind a pillar, quickly followed by Carver and Anders. Apparently, this was a good move, because as soon as we had, the rock wraith let out a blast of red energy that sheared through everything standing in its path except the pillars and larger rocks. "Yep. Definitely take cover whenever it starts to do that," I said, ducking out from around the pillar as soon as the blast of energy was gone and sniping at the rock wraith.

We eventually reduced the rock wraith to gravel, a task that was made more difficult by both the blasts of energy it would occasionally let out, forcing us to jump back behind the pillars, and by the smaller rock wraiths that kept showing up and started attacking us as well.

"I can't believe the rock wraiths are actually real," said Varric. "They're…"

"Supposed to be imaginary?" finished Carver.

"It doesn't really matter," I told them.

"Especially considering what that one was guarding," said Varric, pointing at the huge pile of treasure in the corner of the cavern. "Let's get the most expensive stuff and get out of here."

"You know," I commented, busily stuffing my pockets and backpack with treasure. "I think this is going to get us more money than the stuff we found with Bartrand. Ha! Karma!"


	16. Chapter 16

17

Five days later, we had found our way back to the passage we had used to get down to the thaig. "We made good time," I commented. "We should be back on the surface soon."

"Do you think we could take a break," Carver gasped. "I feel wrong." I turned around. He looked terrible.

"All right. Let's set up camp if you're feeling sick."

Varric laughed. "I bet it was those deep mushrooms we ate."

"No," said Carver. "I don't think…" He collapsed.

I immediately rushed up to him. "Carver?" His veins were beginning to look grey.

Anders hurried over to us. "It's the Blight! I can sense it."

"Just like that Templar, Wesley." I hadn't thought about Aveline's dead husband in a while. "I'll be just as dead, just as gone," muttered Carver, sounding slightly delirious.

"Don't be ridiculous," I said, inwardly panicking. "We'll think of something."

"I won't make it," moaned Carver. "Not to the surface. Not anywhere."

"I have an idea," said Anders. "Those maps? I actually stole them from a Warden who had come to Kirkwall. I was trying to find out if he was looking for me. Turns out they were just planning their own expedition to the deep roads."

"So that's what those red lines on the map were about," I realized. "But how does this help us, exactly?"

"The Grey Wardens are here and we know where. We can take Carver to them. Becoming a Grey Warden makes you immune to the Taint. Ish. The point is, Carver won't be dying anymore. Not this quickly, at least."

That didn't sound anywhere close to ideal, but- "All right, let's try it."

"Do I get a say in this?" asked Carver.

"Do you want to die?"

"Never mind, I like this plan."

It only took a few hours for us to find the Grey Wardens. Well, to be more accurate, they found us while we were fighting a group of darkspawn. "Anders?" asked the lead Warden, a dark-haired man with a very large mustache. He didn't seem particularly happy to see him.

"Fancy meeting you here, Stroud," said Anders tensely.

"Didn't you swear never to set foot in the deep roads again?"

"Funny story, that. Apparently my sense of self-preservation goes out the window whenever I meet an Amell. Anyway, I'm only here to look for you." He nodded at Carver.

"You want us to recruit the boy? Of course you do. The answer's no. We do not recruit Grey Wardens out of pity."

That was just plain insulting. "Hey! Who said there was any pity required? My brother is a plenty awesome fighter when he's not on the brink of death."

"I still can't do it."

"Trust me," said Anders. "He's worth it."

"I can't; the Joining could kill him."

"Did you miss the part where he's already dying?"

"Okay, fine," grumbled Stroud.

"Is this really a good idea?" Carver asked me faintly.

"You have a better one?"

I handed Carver's limp form over to Stroud, who hurried off followed by the other Wardens. Mother was going to kill me for this.

When we finally reached Kirkwall a few days later, I was feeling mostly numb. "I wonder if Bartrand came back to the city?" pondered Varric.

I sighed. "Bartrand isn't my biggest concern right now."

Varric instantly looked guilty. "I'm sorry."

"Why? It's not your fault. And now I'm going to have to explain everything to Mother." I sighed and opened the door to Gamlen's house.

Instantly, Mother ran forward and hugged me. "My baby!" she looked over my shoulder. "Where's your brother?"

"Well," I said, prying her off me. "I have good news and bad news. The good news is that Carver finally got a steady job!"

"And the bad news?" she asked suspiciously.

"It's as a Grey Warden, so I don't know when we'll ever see him again."

"What!?"


	17. Chapter 17

Part 2

1

Varric and I sold off the treasure we had found in the deep roads and became filthy rich. We found out what had happened to Bethany after Mother had sent her off with Olivia when word got back to Ferelden about the Deep Roads expedition- apparently she had eloped with King Alistair. Mother was quite smug. Gamlen was just confused. I ended up just buying back the Amell Estate because it was easier than continuing the lawsuit to get it back due to its being sold illegally, diplomatic relations with the Qunari got progressively worse, and I finally got mostly used to not having someone constantly following me around and complaining that I had a hero complex. After three comparatively unremarkable years passed, things began to get interesting again when I was summoned by the Viscount.

When I arrived, the Viscount was standing in his office, complaining about the qunari to Seneschal Bran. "So, what's up?"

Viscount Dumar glared at Bran, who seemed to get the idea and left, closing the door behind him. "First Enchanter Orsino and Knight-Commander Meredith jumping down my throat and a city scared of heretical giants. The balance is only kept because the qunari ask for nothing. And now…"

"Let me guess, they asked for something."

"The Arishok requested you. By name. What did you do?"

I shrugged. "Beats me. I haven't done anything Qunari-related in three years. Maybe he just doesn't know anyone else."

"Perhaps." The Viscount sighed. "I remember what you did for my son. It seems you are meant to have influence above your station. Find out what the Arishok wants. Give him what he needs to keep the peace. Can you do that for Kirkwall, Serah Hawke."

"Wait," I said, processing that. "Go back a minute. How is any of this above my station? I'm insanely rich, the Amells are technically still nobles because the family's title never got taken away when Gamlen lost Mother's money, unlike most nobles and rich people I actually have useful skills, my little sister eloped with a Theirin, and my cousin killed an archdemon."

"Please just find out what the Arishok wants."

"Fine, but I feel insulted and your elitism makes me have no respect for you."

Still irritated, I left the office and headed home. When I got there, Bodhan and Sandal had set up an enchanting station in a corner. "Where did they come from?" I wondered, confused. I hadn't seen either of them in three years.

"They work for us now," said Mother cheerfully. "Something about repaying you for saving Sandal's life."

"In other words, business is going badly so they attached themselves to us."

"Probably," admitted Mother.

At that moment, Aveline came in through the front door. "Hello, Hawke. I'll say it again, you have done well for yourself."

I laughed. "Just luck. And killing everything in the way."

"Indeed," said Aveline. "Still, more coin never hurts right? And if someone had a job that needed doing…" she trailed off, looking hopeful.

"Sure. I'm kind of bored anyway. What do you need?"

"Remember Emeric?"

"The Templar investigating the possible serial killer?"

"That's the one. He's been badgering the Guard to help him, but we can't do anything without more evidence. If you could help him instead, or prove him wrong, or something… Just get him to stop annoying us."

"So… you're hiring me because you can't officially do anything about the case without proof but I'm a private citizen who can."

"Basically. Off the record, of course."

"Sure, I'll talk to him. You're coming with me, though."

"I can live with that."

I moved over to the desk, which was covered with letters. "Yeesh. When did these arrive?" I began sorting through them. "Letters from Lothering, something from Carver saying he's still alive and blaming me for his becoming a Grey Warden, letter from Bethany, junk mail, scam, thank-you notes from people I rescued, letter from mage underground asking for help, weird note from Feynriel and another from Arianni saying she thinks something's wrong with him, and a bill addressed to Uncle Gamlen. Why did I get that? He doesn't live here." Aveline looked amused. "Oh, that's where I left it."

"Left what?"

I picked up the paper and waved it around. "The weird note I found in the Chantry the other day talking about hundreds of slaves disappearing while Kirkwall was occupied by the Tevinters. It has these bizarre markings on it and was hidden in the cover of a book. I found several notes like this a while back, scattered around the city, all signed by something called 'The Band of Three'. It looks like they were investigating something really strange about this city. I've been looking into the weirdness around here in my spare time," I added in explanation.

"What were you doing looking through books in the Chantry, though?"

"Snooping," I admitted cheerfully. "Do you realize how many clandestine meetings and such go on in that Chantry? Once night falls the place is criminal activity central. Way to latch on to the least interesting part of what I was saying and ignore the part about the mystery and the secret society, by the way."

"I'm not really into that sort of thing," said Aveline.

We headed to the Gallows to talk to Emeric. "I hear you're still chasing disappearing acts," I said cheerfully.

Emeric glared at me. "Not funny. I've been investigating the disappearances of Ninette, Mharen, and the others for three years, and I finally have a suspect. A man named Gascard du Puis."

I winced. "Who would give their child a name like that?"

"He's Orlesian."

"Ah."

"I told the City Guard on him, but they didn't find anything and Meredith forbade me from continuing my investigation. She called me paranoid." He laughed bitterly. "That's rich, coming from her. I need outside help. Just break into his house tonight and find proof that I'm right or wrong."

"I'll try," I promised. Aveline didn't look particularly happy. "Say," I said, looking for a distraction. "What's Anders doing here?" I grabbed Aveline's arm and walked over to him.

"Oh, Hawke," he said brightly. "I was just talking to Alain and Grace." He gestured to a pair of vaguely familiar mages, who I belatedly recognized from three years ago as two of the Starkhaven escapees.

"Grace blames you for her getting recaptured," said Alain cheerfully. "Because you didn't kill those Templars. We've been trying to convince her it wasn't your fault."

"We're certainly not plotting a second escape," added Anders unconvincingly. "If you want to help, come talk to me in the clinic later," he whispered to me.

"I'm not hearing this," said Aveline loudly, covering her ears.

"Right…" I said slowly. "How about we go talk about this someplace else?" I grabbed Anders and dragged him off.

"I'm leaving," announced Aveline. "I get the feeling that if I hear what you're planning I'll end up feeling guilty about not doing anything to stop you and I'd rather avoid that." She went back to the Keep while Anders and I went to his clinic.

"All right," I said when we arrived. "What's up?"

"Things just keep getting worse," he complained. "I had Templars practically on my doorstep last night."

I frowned. "Were they after you?"

"Nope," piped up a voice from behind me. "They don't know where he lives, even though everyone else does."

I turned around. "Isabella? What are you and Merrill doing here?"

"It's a clinic. We need medical attention."

Anders sighed and sent a swirl of healing magic at the two of them. "Fine. But Isabella, you should really stop getting Merrill into bar fights. Anyway," he added, turning back to me, "She's right, they weren't after me but this place isn't exactly a secret. It's only a matter of time."

"Or it would be if Varric didn't have most of them so thoroughly bribed, and the rest convinced that he's on some sort of clandestine mission from the Wardens." said Isabella.

"Not the really crazy ones," pointed out Anders.

I sighed. "You really need someplace safer. At this rate I might have to lock you up just to keep them away from you."

Ander smiled. "Sweetheart, I'm not letting anyone lock me up. You included."

Merrill looked at us. "Am I missing something?" Isabella dragged her over to the doorway, snickering.

"Things are getting ridiculous," said Anders. "The curfews, the midnight raids on mages' families. Almost everyone I know has been forced into hiding for their own protection."

"Don't worry," I said cheerfully. "If they come after you, I'll kill them all horribly."

"But you're in just as much danger as I am," he said miserably. "What if your money and position aren't enough and the Knight-Commander turns on you. Everything I've done to control this…I don't care. I would drown us in blood to keep you safe."

"Aww, you're so romantic. Seriously," I said sarcastically, "nice image. How about we start with flowers or a dinner date or something."

"You're in the wrong place if that's the kind of man you're looking for. There will be more violence. I know this. If you tie yourself to me, I'll only hurt you."

I looked at him sadly. "I can't think of anything that would hurt worse than losing you."

"Don't go there. I have no control around you. Don't tempt me, not unless you're ready for what that means." Anders walked unhappily away to go brood in the back room.

"Argh!" Frustrated, I kicked one of the stone pillars holding up the ceiling. Every time. Every single time I tried to flirt with him.

Isabella walked over to me. "Wow. Is he angsty or what? Hanged Man?"

"Sounds good."

It wasn't until we were halfway to the tavern that I realized that we had become completely sidetracked from the initial issue of mages.


	18. Chapter 18

Part 2

2

"What's up with Hawke?" asked Varric, watching me moodily nurse my second drink.

"Anders," said Isabella.

Varric poked me. "Come on, let's go do something constructive."

"Like what?" I muttered sulkily.

"Don't tell me you have nothing you could be doing."

I thought for a minute. "The Viscount wanted me to talk to the Arishok for him."

"Why don't we do that, then?"

"Not yet. I'm still kinda mad at him."

"The Arishok?"

"No, the Viscount. I'm gonna go visit Arianni instead."

"Oh good," said Merrill happily. "I like her. She lives next door to me."

I stood up and we walked the few blocks to the Alienage.

"Hi, Arianni," called Merrill. "Look! Hawke came!" she gestured at me.

"Thank goodness!" exclaimed Arianni. "I went to visit Feynriel among the people and he refused to talk to me. The demons are still bothering him and now they've taken him!"

"Maybe he's just still mad about you ratting on him to the Templars," I pointed out.

"He's been in a coma for two days."

"Oh. What can I do to help?"

"Keeper Marethari knows a ritual that will help him, but someone Feynriel trusts has to go into the Fade to lead him out. Like you. He won't listen to me after I told the Templars about him, but he trusts you after you rescued him and spent the past three years visiting him all the time."

"I also went to see Keeper Marethari," I reminded her. "But yeah, Feynriel and I are bros now." It was possible that I was spending a little too much time in the Dalish camp, actually. I was starting to assimilate into their culture.

"So you'll help."

"Obviously."

"Wonderful! Thank you so much! Keeper Marethari should be here soon."

The Keeper arrived about an hour later, among the reverent stares of the inhabitants of the alienage. "I'm glad you called me, Arianni," said the Keeper. "I didn't want to tell you how much danger Feynriel is in by letter. He's what the Tevinters call Somniari- a Dreamer, the first in a very long time to survive. He has the power to control the Beyond, what humans call the Fade."

"Control the Fade?" I looked at her, confused.

"That would explain a lot about Olivia," muttered Anders, behind me. I decided not to ask.

"Arianni said you knew a ritual that could send me into the Fade to help Feynriel," I said.

"Of course." Keeper Marethari drew me aside. "I need to warn you. Whatever happens, Feynriel must not become an abomination. He would cause too much death and destruction if that were to happen. If you can't save Feynriel, you have to kill him in the Fade- because he's a Dreamer, it will make him what your Circle calls Tranquil."

"It's not my Circle," I said automatically. "And that won't happen."

Keeper Marethari sighed. "I hope you're right."

Feynriel was dreaming about the Templar hall in the gallows. "What an awful place to dream about!" exclaimed Merrill.

"No kidding. Let's go find Feynriel."

We walked through a doorway and entered a dreamlike representation of the Templars' courtyard. In the center a demon slithered up to us. "It's not often you see two forgotten magics in one day," commented the demon. "I wasn't sure I'd like this one, but it has potential."

"Sloth demon!" said Merrill. "Think active thoughts, like running and jumping!" she began to do jumping jacks.

"Call me Torpor," said the demon. "I have a proposition for you."

"Nah," I said, blasting the demon with a fireball. "I'd rather just kill you. I've had a bad day."

"Didn't you at least want to see what it was offering?" asked Merrill, sounding disappointed.

"I'm in the mood to kill something. Like I said, I've had a bad day."

In the next room, a younger version of Feynriel was being taught to write by his father. "Can I come to Antiva with you this summer?" Feynriel asked. "Mother said I could, right Mother?" he turned to look at me and I stared down at myself, confused. For some reason I looked like Arianni.

"I thought your father abandoned you. He certainly didn't seem to love you much."

Feynriel ran out of the room through one of the walls, crying. The image of Feynriel's father twisted into a desire demon. "You turned him against me!" accused the demon.

"Oopsie," I said insincerely. "Complete accident. Really."

"Well if you take my pets, I'll take yours." The demon walked up to Isabella. "I can get you a ship and crew."

Isabella looked very interested. I rolled my eyes. "Can't compete with that, can I?"

Isabella turned to me, beginning to draw her daggers. "I like big boats, I cannot lie."

"Well, that sucks." I said once we had finished off the demon and defeated Isabella, waking her up. "I really hope that doesn't happen again."

We found Feynriel again on the opposite side of the building. He was an adult this time, standing with a group of elves while Keeper Marethari announced that he was some kind of chosen one. I looked down at myself again and was irritated to find that I now looked exactly like First Enchanter Orsino. "Really?" I said loudly. "You seriously think that the elves would teach the ancient magics that they abandoned for being too dangerous to someone who's half human? Yeah, right. Could the elves really trust you with the power to shape reality? Could you trust yourself, for that matter?"

"That's what Keeper Marethari told me," Feynriel said. He looked at the fake Marethari. "You aren't the real Keeper! Begone, demon!" Feynriel once again ran away through the wall.

The fake Marethari turned into a pride demon. "Together, Feynriel and I could have changed the world!"

"Why does that sound so familiar?" muttered Varric behind me.

"Be nice to Anders, Varric," I muttered absently.

"And yet you knew immediately exactly who I was talking about."

I turned back to the demon. "Feynriel wants freedom, not power."

"Those who are free always want power."

I frowned. "Now you sound like Fenris. That's disturbing."

"You think this elf with her innocent face would turn down a demon's offer?" asked the demon, looking at Merrill.

"No," Varric and I answered simultaneously.

"How about it? I can give you what I offered Feynriel- savior of the Dalish."

"Really?" said Merrill. "Is that possible?"

Again, Varric and I answered at the same time with a resounding 'no'.

"Of course it is," said the demon.

Merrill turned to me with an apologetic expression. "I cannot put you ahead of the fate of my people." She and the demon attacked.

"Man, that's annoying," I muttered when the fight was over. "Varric…"

"I'll try not to attack you," he promised.

We found Feynriel back in the courtyard. "The Fade feels different now," he said. "I can see the stitches holding it together. I could wake at any moment. Thank you. I'll go to Tevinter. Maybe they will know something about this power. Tell my mother and the Keeper where I've gone."

"Remember to write," I yelled after him. Then Varric and I woke up.

"Is Feynriel all right?" asked Arianni instantly.

"He has mastered his power," I answered her.

"Can I come back to the Dalish with you, Keeper?" Arianni asked.

"Of course," said Marethari.

"Feynriel won't actually be there. He's going to Tevinter to learn more about his power."

"Oh no," wailed Arianni.

"That's a good idea," said Marethari. "I really didn't think you could do it." She handed me a book. "This belonged to the last Dreamer of our tribe. Accept it with my thanks."

I frowned. "Shouldn't you give this to Feynriel instead?"

"He isn't here. From what your friend there was telling me while you were in the Fade," she said, nodding to Anders, "You should probably give it to this Olivia person, anyway. I agree, she certainly sounds like a Dreamer."

I really didn't want to know what Anders and Marethari had been talking about while the rest of us were unconscious. I made a mental note to make sure Olivia got the book. "Thank you, Keeper. Now. Back to the Hanged Man!"


	19. Chapter 19

Part2

3

The next day I went to see the Arishok, Varric, Anders, and Aveline tagging along. "Serah Hawke," the Arishok greeted. "Last time we met I didn't know your name or even particularly care. You have changed your fortunes much, unlike us. I offer you a courtesy. Someone has stolen what he thinks is the formula for gaatlok. You will want to hunt him."

"Why, exactly?" I asked suspiciously.

"He actually took a decoy formula. This one makes saar-qamek, a deadly poison gas. Just a small amount is deadly enough to your kind, but if made in quantity, perhaps by someone intending to sell it…

"The dwarf, Javaris," I realized.

"Would he be cautious or would he make could kill off an entire district?"

The answer was to that obvious. The very thought was absolutely horrifying. I whirled around. "Varric! Where would he be?"

"I heard about the Coterie selling off his things- they might know."

"It will be interesting to see if you die," said the Arishok contemplatively.

We left as quickly as possible to go find out where Javaris had gone. We found a woman from the Coterie in Darktown selling off Javaris' posessions. She did not seem too happy with him and was quite happy to point us toward Smuggler's Cut, one of the more well-used pathways through the cave systems leading out of the city. "Javaris doesn't exactly sound like a mastermind at work here," commented Anders as we headed for the passage.

"He never did."

We found Javaris outside the cave after passing through Smuggler's Cut and being attacked by several groups of thugs. In retrospect, perhaps bringing someone in Guard uniform through an underground passage frequented mainly by criminals wasn't such a brilliant idea. I did find a neat model ship to give Isabella later, though.

"She would send you," said Javaris unhappily. "You know what? Fine. Just go ahead and kill me."

"Don't make the powder, Javaris- it's actually poison gas."

"I didn't steal the powder! That elf did!"

Anders smirked. "It seems that the obvious thief was a bit too obvious."

"So, where is this elf, then?" I asked. "The only person here is you."

"That's because I ran away when she tried to kill me to frame me for taking the powder. She's in Lowtown- I had someone follow her. I just want to get out of here."

I rolled my eyes. "Fine, get moving then."

Varric, Anders, Aveline, and I hurried back through Smuggler's Cut, headed for Lowtown. When we got there, we immediately ran into a commotion. One of the Guards was standing outside a blocked off section of streets, warning a small crowd of people away. "What's going on, Mason?" asked Aveline instantly.

"I don't know! There was some kind of hazy green mist in the air and people started going crazy and falling over dead!"

I looked at Aveline meaningfully. "Javaris' elf at work?"

"We have to stop this!"

"Right." I pulled up my scarf and tied it over my nose and mouth. "Anders…"

"Got it." He waved his hands and an aura of low-level healing magic surrounded him about five feet in every direction.

"Try to stay in the safeish zone," I said to Aveline and Varric, gesturing at the dome of bluish light around us.

We walked past the barrier into the affected area. "I think the gas is coming from those barrels," Aveline said, pointing to several barrels arranged around the square and leaking the greenish mist. We hurried over to the closest one and slammed the lid on, securing it with a steel latch that had been lying on the ground beside it. Instantly a large group of mercenaries appeared from the around the street corners and attacked us.

We fought our way over to the other barrels and closed them as well. Once we had finished both killing the mercenaries and closing the barrels another group of mercenaries appeared on top of a set of steps, this time led by an unhealthy-looking elf with cracked skin. "Serah Hawke?" she looked surprised to see me. "You have enemies. These poor people…You are a much better target."

Strange. What had I ever done to her? "Please tell me this was an accident."

"My siblings lose their culture, then go to the Qun for purpose. We're losing them twice! So I got some help from your people. Steal the Qunari powder, stage a few accidents- make them hate it. But this-this is all wrong."

I narrowed my eyes. "Who, exactly, helped you?"

"It can still work," said the elf, sounding deranged. "They're hidden in your city. Me, I'm finished. I just need a few more bodies. A few more." She motioned to the mercenaries and together they attacked.

"That was insane!" said Aveline when the fight was over. "The Arishok needs to know about this."

"Agreed." We trooped out of the slowly dissipating poisonous mist and walked to the Qunari compound.

"So, it seems we were wrong about the thief," said the Arishok.

"It seems so."

"They say we were careless with our trap, that this is our fault." I refrained from commenting that purposely leaving a formula for poison gas out where someone could steal it was, in fact, careless. "But even without the saar-qamek, there would still have been death. Selfishness, want, denial- how can you allow it to continue?"

I couldn't help feeling slightly insulted. "If you hate it so much, just leave."

"Ever since I arrived I saw nothing but greed and selfishness in this place. You are the only one with any skill and even then your actions were random, the result of selfishness. You say we should leave, but how can you bear to stay in this…chaos?"

"To make it better. Sure, it's chaotic, but there's a chance for me to make a real difference here."

"Karasten are soldiers. The Qun made it so. Yet they are free to choose within that role; to accept and succeed or deny and die. Could not you- could not this city- benefit from that certainty? How else will you know if you have made 'a real difference'?"

"But is that certainty or slavery? He's free to choose to obey, but is that really a choice?"

"He chooses to be. As do we all, long before your meaningless freedoms are presented. Your kind may force our role to change, if the Qun demands it."

I decided that arguing philosophy would only keep us here all day. "That elf almost beat you, with your own weapon, no less."

"We have only one weapon, the certainty of the Qun, and it cannot be used against us. I am here to satisfy a demand you cannot understand."

"It's sure taking a while."

"There is no ship coming. There is no rescue from duty to the Qun. I am stuck here."

Now that was interesting. "But weren't you the one who chose to stay?"

"I cannot leave. Something was stolen from us. Not now, not the sarr-qamek, years ago. A simple act of greed has bound me. We cannot return to Par Vollen until it is found. That is why that elf is unimportant. That is why I do not simply walk from this pustule of a city. Fixing your mess is not the demand of the Qun. And you should all be grateful," he finished, shouting. The Arishok sat down, seemingly getting a hold of his temper. "Thank you, human. Now leave."

"He's on the edge," muttered Anders to me as we left. "The Viscount should know."

I nodded. "Not right now, though," I said, looking at the rapidly darkening evening sky. "It'll take a while to walk up there and, somehow, I don't think the Viscount will appreciate out showing up at night."

"We should probably head home and come back in the morning," said Aveline. "I have to work tomorrow anyways."

"Aren't you forgetting something?" I asked Aveline. "I promised to investigate Gascard du Puis' mansion tonight to find out if he was the serial killer. Also so Ser Emeric would stop bothering you," I added as an afterthought.

As we started towards Hightown, Aveline sighed deeply. "I still don't think that there actually is a serial killer. Since Carver's not here, I guess I'm the one who'll have to say it- you really do have a hero complex."

Almost instantly after entering the Du Puis Estate, we were attacked by a half-dozen shades. "Somehow," said Aveline once the shades were gone, "I doubt that the Guards raiding the estate met that particular reception."

"I should hope not," I said, moving forward. "They really should have mentioned it if they had." There wasn't much of interest until we had gotten to a study on the second floor. "Well, would you look at that," I said, walking over to the desk containing several large, creepy-looking vials of what was obviously blood.

"Blood magic," commented Anders. "Someone's been naughty."

"How did the Guards miss this?" I wondered. "And what is it with this town and blood mages? Kirkwall has got to have more of them than the rest of the Free Marches put together."

In the next room we searched, we found a chest filled with women's clothing.

"Well, that's not suspicious at all," I said sarcastically.

"Maybe these belong to a relative?" speculated Aveline with optimism.

"Or he cross-dresses," suggested Varric.

The next room over had two people in it; Gascard, and a distressed blond woman. "Help me!" wailed the woman as soon as we entered.

Gascard looked alarmed. "You're not him- I know what this looks like, but I swear, I didn't hurt her." We all looked at him skeptically. "Someone was after her; I only kidnapped her to keep her safe! I don't know why you're here, but there's a killer on the loose out there and I think he's playing us both. Just let me explain!"

"Okay," I said, folding my arms. "This I've got to hear."

Varric looked amused. "Twenty silver if he says 'It wasn't me, it was the one armed man!'"

Du Puis ignored him. "Several years ago, someone murdered my sister, and now he's in Kirkwall, killing more people. It starts with the victims receiving a bouquet of white lilies, then, well… Alessa was going to be next," Gascard continued, gesturing at the woman. "I brought her here so the killer would have to come to me."

"He's lying," cried Alessa. "He hurt me!"

Gascard seemed exasperated. "As I've told you at least twenty times, I need your blood so I can track you down if the killer catches you!"

"Get away from me!" she shouted. Alessa jumped up and ran past us out the door.

"She'll go to the City Guard and ruin everything!" exclaimed Gascard. "You have to help me!"

"Yeah, no." I said, "That story isn't exactly convincing enough to make me let a kidnapping blood mage run around."

"No! I can't let it end like this; I've worked too hard!" exclaimed Gascard. Instantly, he summoned four shades and fled out the door.

We eventually caught up with him in the dining room, where he had apparently decided to try to fight us off rather than just leaving like most people would have. Then again, blood mages weren't exactly known for their common sense.

"Great," Aveline said irritably. "Now Gascard's dead and we're still not certain who the killer is."

"But you do admit that there is a killer, now?"

"Yes, I admit that there is a killer. Hopefully it was Gascard," she added, "that way the killing spree will be over now."

"When are we ever that lucky?"


	20. Chapter 20

Part 2

Interlude: Ill-met in the Deep Roads, part 1

I woke up early in the morning after only around four hours of sleep to a commotion from downstairs. Blearily, I staggered out of bed to find that there was a group of disreputable-looking dwarves sprawled about in the entrance hall with a very annoyed-looking Carver standing over them. I groaned. "It's way too early in the morning for this. What's going on here?" I asked.

"Some people like this attacked me earlier, babbling incoherently. I managed to gather that they were from some kind of cult and were going to go after you, as well."

To make a rather long story short, we, except for Aveline who, as she so often reminded us, had a steady job to go to, found ourselves in the Vinmark mountains on the road to the Carta stronghold where the assassins had come from.

"There it is," announced Varric. "Not sure why they'd want to attack you; they're supposed to be smart criminals."

"I still can't believe they actually went as far as sneaking into the Warden keep at Ansburg," commented Carver.

"So, what's the plan?" Varric asked.

"We politely ask them to stop," I said sarcastically. "I'm sure that this is all a misunderstanding. We'll laugh later."

Varric laughed. "'Oh, your name is Hawke? I thought it was Locke!"

"Yes," said Carver, continuing the joke, "We were looking for some other combination of general and ringmaster."

I snickered. "Come on, let's go."

We ended up fighting our way past dozens of Carta members babbling about my father, Malcolm, blood, and someone called Corypheus.

"Who the heck is Corypheus?" asked Carver.

"No idea, but with a name like that he's bound to go muahaha at some point. And blood? Really? Again? Why can't they ever be obsessed with spit or something?"

"You really want to meet a spit mage?" asked Varric.

Carver looked at a metal pedestal with writing carved in it. "Okay, this is ominous."

"What?"

"It's talking about sacrifice, and guarding something and a 'pestilent one' that it would be bad if escaped."

"Yeah, not disturbing at all," I muttered. "Why do I get the feeling that something really, really bad is going on here? Wow, look at that," I said, looking up.

"Is that a fortress?" asked Anders. "Out here in the middle of nowhere?"

"This just keeps getting better and better. Why can't we ever go anywhere nice? Like the beach?"

"The day you go the beach will be the day an angry armada of demon pirates shows up," said Varric.

As we entered the Carta hideout and fought our way downward through it, we found several creepy notes talking about blood and Corypheus. They made the whole thing sound like some sort of cult.

One of the dwarves who seemed to be some sort of leader was carrying a large staff. When I picked it up, I felt incredibly strange. "What is this thing?"

"I think the enchantment needed that," said Carver. "What was Father mixed up in?"

"I don't know," I answered, "but somehow I think that this will help us find out. Come on." We followed a pair of running dwarves down some steps. In retrospect, this wasn't a very good idea. In fact, it was an extremely bad idea.

As soon as we reached the bottom of the stairs, a glowing gold barrier appeared behind us, blocking the way back. I groaned. "I suppose we should have seen that one coming. This just keeps getting better and better." The next room contained a group of darkspawn standing over the corpses of the dwarves we had chased down there. "Well," I said, shooting a fireball at a genlock. "I guess this means that we are officially in the deep roads. Hey, I wonder what this is for," I added once the darkspawn were dead, poking at a glowing red spot on the wall. "Ooh, there's another one."

A swirling blue mist appeared in the corner and a voice started speaking out of nowhere. "Be bound here for eternity, hunger stilled, rage smothered, desire dampened, pride crushed. In the name of the Maker, so let it be."

"Is that Father?" asked Carver.

"It sure sounds like him," I answered, poking at a third glowing red spot, this one on another gold barrier. The barrier vanished and a shade attacked us. "Oops."

"Way to go," complained Carver once it was gone.

I was about to say something back to him, but the voice that sounded like Father came back. "I could do nothing about the Wardens' use of demons in this horrid place, but I will have no one say any magic of mine ever released one into the world." Carver and I looked at each other. This was not sounding good.

A little later, we reached a bridge across a chasm, where we were approached by a disheveled, insane sounding man in Grey Warden armor, muttering about a key and gesturing to the staff I was holding. "Great," I sighed, "more crazy."

He started muttering about keys again, then said something interesting. "I can show you out."

"Great. How, exactly?" I asked, slightly skeptical."

"Can't leave without breaking the seals. Touch the key to the seals and they open. Only for the Hawke. The only way out is down," He told us.

We crossed the bridge and reached a circular room with a gigantic circular dais with four glowing pillars around it in the middle. Shrugging, I poked the center of it with the staff. There was a shudder and we were attacked by a giant red monster that looked like a pride demon.

The man reappeared after the demon was gone. "Let me guess, the first seal?"

"The magic's been working for two thousand years. You have to reabsorb it into the key."

Not feeling too thrilled about this, I walked into the center of the dais and held the staff up to one of the pillars. Magic flowed out of the pillar and into the staff, making it glow violet. I could actually feel the seal breaking. "Weird," I muttered to myself, stepping back off the dais. "So," I turned to the man. "Who are you anyway?"

"I can't remember, I think my name was… Larius. Yes, that. Commander of the Grey."

"He was a Grey Warden," said Anders. "He must have come down here on his Calling."

"Yes," said Larius. He began muttering about being dead without dying.

"His what?" I asked Anders.

"Wardens aren't immune to the Taint forever," he explained. "Eventually we start to hear voices- the same ones darkspawn hear."

"Not exactly a hero's end, is it?" added Carver bitterly.

I shuddered, suddenly struck by the horror of such a fate. That was going to happen to Anders and Carver. Olivia as well. The damned Taint. It shouldn't have to be that way. "So- other seals."

"Many locks, only one key," said Larius cryptically. He walked back the way we had come, mumbling about the mysterious Corypheus.

As we started to cross the bridge on the other side of the tower, Anders began whispering to himself. "I'm not listening, I'm not listening!" He had his hands clamped over his ears.

Varric and I exchanged looks. "How does never going into the deep roads ever again after this sound to you?"

"I hope this is less exciting than the last time."

"Somehow, I suspect it'll be more exciting."


	21. Chapter 21

Part 2

Interlude: Ill-met in the Deep Roads, part 2

On next level, we found more of the glowing red spots on the walls and another yellow barrier. I repeated what I had done earlier and poked at them. Immediately, the blue mist appeared again and Father's voice came out of nowhere, repeating what we had heard earlier. I opened the barrier and we were attacked by an abomination.

"Was that absolutely necessary?" complained Carver after we had killed it.

"Yes. Shh." It was probably pretty stupid of me, but if seal did the same as the earlier one… it was nice to hear Father again.

Father's voice started talking once more. "I may have left the Circle, but I took a vow. My magic will serve that which is best in me, not that which is most base."

"That which is best… He used to say that all the time to you and Bethany, didn't he?" said Carver.

I nodded, not speaking.

A couple corridors and several darkspawn later, we found a third set of glowing red wall spots and gold barrier. Before Carver could complain about me letting out a demon and having to kill it, I repeated what I had done the previous two times.

Father's voice spoke up again. This time, I could almost see the outline of a person inside the blue mist. It was indistinct and wavery, but my imagination added the details of Father's form. "I've bought our freedom Leandra. We can go home now, us and the baby. I hope it takes after you, love. I would wish this magic on no one."

"Father didn't want a child with magic?" said Carver. "He got that one wrong twice over. I guess the Warden's looking pretty good right now."

For some reason, knowing that felt rather painful. The baby must have been me. "Carver? Shut up."

We moved down another story after opening up a second seal after being literally thrown around a lot by the pride demon guarding it and the duplicates that he demon kept making of itself.

Immediately after breaking the seal, Anders started talking to himself again. "No!" he said, sounding extremely distressed. "Get out of my head!"

"Anders?" asked Carver, waving his hand in front of Anders' face. "Can you hear me?" Anders didn't seem to be paying any attention.

I frowned. "Is anyone else finding the timing of these little episodes extremely alarming? Breaking these seal things is sounding like a worse idea every minute."

"Yeah, but it's the only way we'll be able to leave," pointed out Carver.

"I know," I said, sighing. "But I don't like this one bit. Not any of it."

Larius met up with us on the bridge again. "He is waking. He feels us walk where no step goes."

"Waking? You mean this Corypheus person?"

"When the seals are gone he will wake and he must die."

"Somehow," I said, "I'd figured that much out already." Larius ran off again.

At the bottom of the next staircase we found, instead of corridors like the ones we had been in, a wide cavern with a path marked by walls and small buildings leading through it. It seemed to be at the very base of the tower. There was luminous greenish liquid that I assumed was probably water around the path letting off glowing mist. "That can't be normal," I commented. "Even assuming luminous cave lichen."

We made it to the path at the base of the tower without anything more notable than a hurlock knocking me into a pool of the icky luminescent water, which was disgusting and left the part my robe that got wet the same glowing green color as the water, but not particularly disturbing.

When we did get to the bottom of the tower, however, Anders began talking to himself again, sounding even more upset than before. "Stop! Just make him stop talking! Make him stop!"

I looked at him. "Anders?"

"It's Corypheus," said Carver in realization. "He can hear Corypheus."

"That… Can't be good."

Anders doubled over, clutching his head. "I can't… I have too much taint in my blood…" He began mumbling incoherently. "Help me…I will not…" Glowing blue lines appeared on his skin and he suddenly stood up straight, eyes shining blue. "…Be controlled!" finished Justice, sounding angry.

"Well, it's better than having him under mind control from some creepy ancient Taint-monster," I muttered as Justice attacked us and Carver hit him over the back of the head, knocking him unconscious. Instantly the blue faded.

Anders groaned, sitting up. "Thank you. I guess you never can leave the Wardens."

"No problem," I said cheerfully. "I'm sure Carver enjoyed getting an excuse to punch you."

"Let's just try not to do that again," said Varric. "Bianca doesn't like being turned on her friends."

Anders smiled slightly.

We reached the entrance to the tower after opening another seal, to be stopped by running into Larius and a group of people, presumably Grey Wardens, led by a woman carrying a mage's staff. "You're Hawke," she said, looking at me. "Malcolm's child. Stroud said he met you in the deep roads. The Carta told us they were close. I'm Janika, I lead this unit of Grey Wardens."

"Senior Warden," asked Carver politely, "Why are you so interested in my father?"

Jankia looked surprised. "You don't know? Without Malcolm this prison would have fallen more than twenty years ago."

"Okay, so how did that work exactly?" I asked.

"The Grey Wardens built this prison to contain the most powerful darkspawn we've ever encountered. Over time the magic fades, and it needs to be renewed by the blood of a mage untainted by Grey Warden training. Your father was the last to complete the ritual."

I groaned. "Just once I'd like to have something happen to me that doesn't involve blood magic. And apparently it's been part of my life since before I was born. Lovely."

"We need your help," said Janika. "The Wardens were wrong. Corypheus isn't a threat, he's an opportunity." I looked at her skeptically and folded my arms. "We can use his magic to end the Blights."

"Don't listen to her!" Larius popped up from behind some rocks. "Corypheus is controlling her, she's the one who got the Carta for him."

"I needed to," said Janika. "Stroud wouldn't let me have your brother."

"Yeah, Stroud's a smart guy," I commented. "The more I hear about Corypheus the more he sounds like a menace to society. I'm gonna have to go with Larius on this one."

"Fine, we'll do it without you!" shouted Janika, running into the tower.

"Hurry!" said Larius, "We need to beat them to the seal!" He followed after her.

"Wait- aren't Carver and I the only ones here that can open it?"


	22. Chapter 22

Part 2

Interlude: Ill-met in the Deep Roads, part 3

We finally reached the top of the tower. "Oh, that's nice," said Varric.

"What?"

"I was just wondering what someplace sinister and foreboding would look like, and here it is." Somewhere in the distance, a wolf howled.

"I see what you mean."

The final seal stood in front of us inside the tower, four glowing streams of light arching between it and the griffin statues spaced evenly around the walls. We started forward, but before we could go anywhere, Janika stepped out from behind the wall of the tower. "This is it, Larius. Hand over Hawke and we won't kill you."

"No. She's already made her choice. The right one." I was feeling slightly annoyed that Janika seemed to think she could make me do anything.

"The right one or the only one? Malcolm Hawke didn't have a choice." Janika smirked as though she had just pulled out the last trump card in the deck.

"That's it the past!" protested Larius. "It doesn't matter!"

"What's she talking about anyway?" I asked.

"Malcolm didn't want to help us. He had to be persuaded."

"And…?"

"I was Warden-Commander. It was my duty! He refused to use blood magic, so I delivered an ultimatum; help us or you'll never see her again."

I twitched. "You. Were going to kill. My mother."

"Well, she was pregnant at the time, so technically I was going to kill you and your mother."

I felt the urge to strangle Larius rising. "So you'll help us then?" asked Janika hopefully.

Luckily for Larius, that distracted me. "No way! I'm angry, not stupid."

"Whatever, all I need is your blood, anyway." Janika and the three Wardens following her drew their weapons and attacked us.

After we had killed Janika and her followers, Larius hurried forward. "Quick! Open the seal and kill Corypheus before he wakes up!"

I nodded and opened the seal. At that point, though, something went wrong. I was flung backward and a twisted darkspawn dressed in robes rose up from the opened center of the seal. And he was awake.

Corypheus looked around in confusion. "Be this some dream I wake from. Am I in dwarven lands? Why seem their roads so empty?" He pointed at me. "You! Serve you at the temple of Dumat? Bring me hence! I must speak with the first acolyte!"

Anders seemed shocked. "Dumat… Was the first Old God to become an Archdemon. There haven't been temples to him since ancient Tevinter."

Corypheus seemed befuddled that we weren't doing what he told us to. "You look human. Are you not citizens of the Empire? Slaves then, to the dwarves? Why come you here? Whoever you be, you owe fealty to any magister of Tevinter. On your knees! All of you!"

We all just stared at him. "Yeah right. How long have you been asleep for, anyway? The Free Marches haven't been part of the Tevinter Imperium for six hundred years."

"You are what held me. I smell the blood in you." Corypheus turned away from us and yelled upward toward the ceiling. "Dumat! Lord! Tell me. What waking dream is this?"

"Do you think we should mention that Dumat's dead?" I whispered to the others.

"Probably a bad idea," said Varric.

"Agreed."

Corypheus began rambling. "The light. We sought the golden light. You offered…the power of the gods themselves. But it was…black…corrupt. Darkness…ever since." Corypheus turned to face us again. "How long?" he asked in a low growl.

Now it was everyone else's turn to look shocked. "The Golden City," said Larius quietly. "The first violation. The magisters who brought the blight."

"That's ridiculous!" said Anders. "There were no magical boogeymen who trespassed in the Maker's city. It's a story. Chantry propaganda."

"Unless Corypheus really is one of them, we'll never know. It was a really, really long time ago," I pointed out. Suddenly, everything odd I had noticed or learned about Kirkwall clicked into place. The weird layout, the abnormal numbers of blood mages and abominations, the mass killing of slaves in the Bone Pit that eventually became my mine back while the magisters held the city. "And this is where it happened," I whispered too quietly for anyone else to hear. "Kirkwall is where it happened," I said, louder, feeling slightly giddy with the sudden realization. "The entire city was designed as part of the ritual. That's why there are so many demons in the area and why the Veil is still so thin."

"You don't think it's a little convenient, though?" asked Anders. "What does every sane man and woman in Thedas fear? The Blights. Why not pin those on mages too?"

Corypheus seemed confused by the conversation. "What manner of speech is this? How long have I slumbered?"

Larius was glaring at him. "He tainted the world. He speaks to all who carry the corruption. Darkspawn, Wardens. He brought Janika here. Brought you…"

I smirked. "First he went after the Maker in his house , then me in mine. I'm honored."

Corypheus seemed able to follow that. "The city! It was supposed to be golden! It was supposed to be ours! If I cannot leave with you, I will leave through you! I seek the light!" Corypheus began to gather magic around him.

"What light?" I snapped back at him, suddenly furious. If all this really was true, then Corypheus was the one responsible for the suffering of countless people, including my own family. He was the reason everyone was so fanatical about hating mages. The reason I'd had to spend my entire life hiding from the Templars and the reason that Lothering was destroyed. He was the reason that Carver, Olivia, Anders, and even Bethany's husband were all slowly dying. "You put the light out!" I dove out of the way of his attack, pulling the others with me onto one of the balconies containing the statues as he created a raging firestorm that swept across the room.

"He's absorbing power from the statues!" Yelled Carver.

"Shouldn't we destroy them, then?" pointed out Varric.

I smashed at the statue we were standing next to with my staff, and the wave of energy that had been flowing from it toward Corypheus ceased. "Now we have to get to the others, though," said Carver.

I looked at the swirling fire, spotting exactly what I needed. "There's a pattern. Come on." Right after the next wave of fire passed, I jumped onto the ground, running behind it and before the second stream of fire that followed. We made it to the next balcony before the second stream of fire could catch up to us and I smashed at the statue, before repeating the pattern twice more for the two other statues.

Corypheus teleported over to us and began flinging bolts of magic at us from his hands. "Burn, you miserable insects!"

"Okay," I said, blasting him with my staff. "I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that back in your day that wasn't something that would be completely clichéd to say, but still!"

Corypheus teleported back over to the center of the room. "Dumat! Grant me your power! I have the power! The maze closes in!"

"That's clichéd too!" I yelled, diving back onto one of the balconies as the fire came back, this time accompanied by spurs of rock jutting randomly out of the ground.

"You will die before you touch me!" shouted Corypheus. I rolled my eyes and smashed at the statue I was next to before leading the way through the maze of rocks, timing it to stay ahead of the fire to repeat the previous feat of knocking out the statues.

Corypheus teleported over to us and went back to blasting us with bolts of magic. "Is that really the best you've got?" I asked.

"Dumat!" As he was yelling 'grant me your powers', we took cover on one of the balconies, just in time for the fire to come back again, this time with lightning arching between the juts of rock and clumps of ice forming quickly on the ceiling and coming crashing down. "You cannot escape! Feel the chill!" I groaned, both at having something else to doge and at how clichéd that had sounded.

After we had run around smashing at the statues again, Corypheus predictably teleported into the middle of our group. "Is there a chill in the air?" he asked, laughing nastily as he flung ice at us. I groaned. That was not the least bit witty at all. "Run all you like, I can reach you anywhere," he said. I was beginning to lose count of the clichés he was spewing.

Finally, Corypheus collapsed, clutching his chest where one of the bolts from my staff had hit him and I took the opportunity to send a wave of ice at him, freezing him solid. Then decapitated him. Just to be safe. I did not want to risk someone like that somehow walking away from this.

Anders was holding Corypheus' amulet and staring at it. "No one's used this pattern since before the first Blight. It was unique to a small sect in Tevinter who worshiped Dumat. Corypheus really was an ancient magister. I always thought the Black City was just a story."

"It still doesn't justify punishing mages over a thousand years later," I pointed out, trying to cheer him up. He seemed to be having a bit of a crisis of faith.

"Do you think? What else does the Chantry know that we don't? I- need to study this further." Anders wandered over to the bridge, looking pensively at the amulet.

We found Larius standing on the bridge. "You did well, Hawke. Better than the Wardens of old. I must go tell the Warden-Commander of this."

"I'd be careful," warned Carver grimly. "We aren't exactly supposed to come back from the Calling."

"You've gained an ally today," Larius said.

I looked at him, realizing something. "You sound a lot more coherent."

"My head is clear now, without Corypheus' call. I thank you for my freedom."

I nodded, realizing what he meant- or at least I thought I did, at the time. Then I sighed. "An ally, huh? Glad I gained something besides a headache. All this seems to have done is remind me of everything I've lost. And what I never had."

"The prison stands no more," said Larius, turning around to leave. "My gratitude you have, for my freedom."

Again, I thought I understood what he meant. "Yeah," I muttered. "Glad someone could have some of that."

"Man," said Carver when we had arrived home. "The attacks, darkspawn, every bloody part of it, all because of what happened years ago. What he did for Mother, for all of us really. Blood magic on top of leaving the Amell name. No wonder he kept it a secret."

"Yeah."

"So," said Carver awkwardly. "Back to the way things are."

"Looks that way."

He left.

Mother came up behind me. "You two." She smiled. "Fighting all the time won't solve anything. Your father kept so many secrets. I may have been willfully blind."

"How did you even meet him anyway? I mean, a Ferelden apostate and a Kirkwall noblewoman."

Mother smiled. "Mages were sometimes called to perform at the Viscount's functions. Malcolm was not what I expected. So witty, full of life. He was so much like you. But it was so long ago. We have a new life now and we need to think about tomorrow. Malcolm gave us that."

I smiled. "He made do with what was at hand. Frighteningly at hand, but still…"

"He was never one to let the scale of a problem defeat him. He met such things point for point. A horrific victory, I think he'd say. With much greater command of the phrase. Oh, those days. All of us in that simple place. Well, this life, we have to make the best of it. And thanks to him and you, I will."


	23. Chapter 23

Part 2

4

A few days after our return from the Deep Roads, I went down to the clinic to visit Anders, Aveline and Varric tagging along with me. "Have you noticed how many Tranquil are in the Gallows courtyard lately?" he complained. "Every day there are more of them; people I know have passed their Harrowing."

I raised my eyebrows. "So- what? You think there's some kind of conspiracy or something?"

"I know there's a conspiracy! The Templars have a plan to turn every mage in Kirkwall Tranquil within the next three years."

"That seems a bit far-fetched," I said skeptically. "I mean, I have a pretty low opinion of Templars' morals in general, but I doubt that they'd all go along with that. At the very least there's the fact that it's illegal and someone sane would be sure to notice."

"Yes they would do it. I'm working with a few groups in Kirkwall that have been helping mages escape, and I've heard some pretty bad things. The Templar behind this is Ser Alrik. I've had a run-in with him myself. He's a nasty piece of work."

"I'm still not exactly convinced."

"The group that I've been working with, the mage underground, has been helping mages escape from the Circle. They have a way into the Gallows. Come with me and help me find evidence."

Aveline covered her ears with a pained expression. "I'm not hearing this."

I sighed. "I'm really, really skeptical of this, but I'll help. If we find proof, I'll admit I was wrong. I can't let you do this on your own, anyway."

Anders smiled. "You are the one bright light in Kirkwall. I've always feared being made Tranquil. Now, more than ever."

Anders showed us where the entrance to the passage was, not that far away from the clinic. "You ready?"

I nodded. "Let's go."

Aveline groaned. "Why do I spend time with you people again?"

"If we find this evidence, I'm taking it straight to the Grand Cleric. She won't be able to claim neutrality then," said Anders determinedly.

"I don't know about that," I said. "From what I've seen of the Grand Cleric so far, it would probably take an all-out war to make her pick a side."

We had to fight our way past several groups of lyrium smugglers before eventually rounding a corner and coming across a group of Templars menacing a mage. Anders' eyes started to glow blue and he seemed to have difficulty staying in control.

The leader of the Templars- "That's Ser Alrik!" whispered Anders- was standing over the mage, a young woman who was kneeling on the ground begging that she had just wanted to see her mother. "Please don't make me Tranquil!" the woman wailed. "I'll do anything."

Ser Alrik smirked nastily. "That's right. Once you're Tranquil, you'll do anything."

The meaning behind that statement was pretty clear. Anders apparently gave up on trying to hold Justice back and began glowing completely blue. He didn't have a chance to be the first to attack, though. "Die!" I shrieked, blasting Alrik in the back with the largest fireball I could while Aveline leapt forward and viciously attacked the nearest Templar.

Furiously, I hit Alrik with several concussive blasts of force, a wall of ice, and a second fireball until he was a bloody smear in his armor before helping finish off the rest of the Templars who had been with him.

Once the Templars were dead, Justice looked around, swing Anders' staff angrily. "They will die! I will have every last Templar for these abuses!"

This was probably going to be a problem. "Anders. Time to calm down. They're all dead."

Justice turned around and glared at me. "They will die! Every one of them will feel Justice's burn!"

The mage who we had just rescued looked terrified, backing slowly away from where he was standing until she hit the wall of the cave. "Get away from me, demon!"

Justice rounded on her. "I am no demon! Are you one of them, that you would call me such?"

This was getting really bad, really fast. Slowly, I began edging around to get between them. "No, Anders," I said soothingly. "She's a mage. We just rescued her from them, remember?"

"She is theirs! I can feel their hold on her!"

"She's what you're fighting to protect in the first place!"

Justice didn't seem to listen, instead gathering magic in his hands to attack. Desperately, I tried to lunge forward to push her out of the way, but it wasn't necessary. The blue light suddenly faded away and Anders collapsed, hands over his face. He looked horrified. "Maker, no. I almost… I need to get out of here!" Anders stood up and ran off back the way be had come.

I sighed and went over to the mage, helping her stand up. She was shaking. "Come on. We should go, too. What's your name?"

"Ella," she whispered.

I nodded. "Come on Ella," I said, steering her toward the passage we had come from.

By the time we had gotten to Darktown, Ella seemed to no longer be in shock. "You… you saved my life. What was that thing?"

"A possessed guy," I answered bluntly.

Ella looked down. "Can I go home now?"

I nodded. "But don't stay there any longer than you have to. Leave Kirkwall, find someplace safe."

"I know," she said, "Thank you again. Andraste herself must have put you in that room." She walked away.

"I hope she'll be alright," I said quietly. "And now I should probably go talk to Anders about what happened in there."

"Show him this," said Varric, handing me a crumpled, slightly singed letter. "I found it on Ser Alrik's body. Apparently, no one else was too enthusiastic about his plan."

"Thanks," I said, taking the note and heading to the clinic. Varric and Aveline didn't follow me.

I found Anders sorting through his things, flinging half of it away into a trash bin. "So," I said. "Varric found that evidence you were looking for. Apparently the whole 'turn all the mages Tranquil' thing was just him."

I handed Anders the letter and he read it, looking surprised. "The Divine rejected the idea. Even Meredith rejected the idea. This isn't what I expected. Maybe I should try talking to the Grand Cleric. Thank you," he added to me, then wandered off, looking at the letter.

I ended up going to visit Merrill. She seemed excited to see me. "Come in, I want to show you something." Shrugging, I followed her into her bedroom, where a large, non-reflective, full-length mirror missing several pieces stood in the corner. "Isn't it beautiful!" Merrill exclaimed.

"It doesn't show any reflection." I pointed out.

"It's not that kind of mirror," said Merrill. "It's an Eluvian. I've spent the past few years restoring it after one of my clan found it in the Brecilian forest. Poor Tamlen. We never found him. Just the shattered pieces of the Eluvian."

I looked sideways at the mirror. It's always something. "Please tell me you didn't bring the killer mirror to Kirkwall just because it's pretty."

"Don't worry," said Merrill quickly. "The mirror isn't dangerous. I fixed it, mostly. With blood magic." I facepalmed. "It still doesn't work, though. I think it needs to be finished with a special tool- an arulin'holm. My clan has one that I can borrow." She looked at me expectantly.

"Except to do that you would have to talk to the Keeper and you don't want to do that without backup."

"Exactly. You have no idea. The Keeper- we fight, or talk circles around one another. She has a disappointed frown that turns your bones to jelly. Please! You'll help, won't you?" Merrill gave me that pleading look that made her look like a puppy.

"I'll help you," I finally said, against my better judgment.

"Ma'seranas! I'll find some way to repay you for this I promise!" She looked so excited.

We stopped by the Hanged Man on the way out of Kirkwall and picked up Varric and Isabella, along with Fenris, who overheard what we were going to do and followed so he could complain that it was a bad idea every few minutes.

Almost as soon as we were out of the city, a group of armored men led by a Tevinter mage blocked our path. "Halt! You are in possession of stolen property! Hand over the slave now and we won't kill you."

I looked around in obviously feigned confusion. "What slave? I don't see any slaves."

"The one right there! The elf!"

I looked pointedly at the two elves in the group. "Nope, still no idea who you're talking about." The mage was beginning to look incredibly frustrated. "Oh, and by the way? Die." I sent the mage flying with a blast of energy.

The magister actually survived the ensuing fight, mainly due to having been knocked unconscious and nobody bothering with an enemy that wasn't currently attacking. Afterward, though, Fenris walked over to the magister and shook him until he woke up. "Where is he!" Fenris punctuated the statement by slamming the magister's head against the ground.

"I don't know! Hadriana brought us! She's in the Holding Caves. I can show you!" said the magister desperately.

"I know the way," said Fenris viciously before snapping the magister's neck with a sickening crack. "Hadriana. I was a fool to think I was free! They'll never let me be!"

"They will after we kill them," I pointed out. "Merrill, do you mind putting off the mirror thing for just a little bit?" Merrill shook her head. "To the Holding Caves, then."

As soon as we entered the Holding Caves, we found a dead body that had obviously been used in a blood magic ritual. "See for yourself," said Fenris bitterly. "The legacy of the magisters."

Merrill gasped. "They sacrifice the unwilling?"

"Is that so hard to believe? You're only a step away from it yourself." Merrill looked upset.

A little later on, after killing several groups of slavers, we came into another room containing the bodies of sacrificial victims along with a frightened looking elven woman. "Are you all right?" Fenris asked her.

"They killed papa! Bled him!" The woman seemed slightly hysterical.

"These poor people!" cried Merrill.

"Why would they do this?" asked Fenris, sounding horrified.

"She said she needed more power, that someone was coming to kill her," said the woman. Fenris looked down. "I don't understand!" the woman exclaimed. We did everything we were told! She loved papa's soup! Everything was fine until today!"

"No it wasn't," said Fenris quietly. "You just didn't know any better."

"Are you my master now?" asked the woman hopefully.

"No!"

"But- I can cook, I can clean… What else would I do?"

I sighed. "Listen. I have a mansion in Kirkwall. Go to Hightown and ask for the Hawke estate- it just about anyone will be able to tell you where it is. Tell my mother that I hired you."

"Really? Oh, praise the Maker!" The woman hurried off.

Fenris glared at me. "I didn't realize that you were in the market for a slave."

Slowly, I took a deep breath and resisted the urge to deck him. "Fenris? Generally, the word 'hire' implies 'paying job'."

Fenris looked uncomfortable. "That's- good. My apologies. Let's find Hadriana."

Hadriana kept summoning shades and animated skeletons to attack her, but we managed to kill them and injure her badly enough that she couldn't fight anymore. She still reached weakly for the staff that she had dropped from her place lying on the floor, but Fenris stepped over it and kicked it away. Realizing that she had no chance of fighting her way out, Hadriana tried another tactic. "Stop! You do not want me dead!"

Fenris glared at her. "There is only one person who I want dead more."

"I have information!"

"Where Danarius is? Fat lot of good that'll do me."

"Not that, you have a sister, she's alive. If you let me go I'll tell you where she is."

Looking stunned, Fenris lowered his sword. "What?"

"You want to reclaim your life?" continued Hadriana. "If you let me go I'll tell you where she is."

Fenris looked back at the rest of us, obviously confused. "It's your call."

He went up to Hadriana. "Tell me."

"So I have your word, then?"

"Yes," Fenris said grimly. "You have my word."

"Her name's Varania, she's in Corinus, serving a magister named Eremon."

"A servant? Not a slave."

"No, not a slave."

"I believe you," he said darkly. Then he ripped out Hadriana's heart. "We're done here."

"Are you alright?" I asked.

"No! This could all be a trap! Danarius has to know about this sister and he has to know that Hadriana knows! But all that matters is I got to crush this bitch's heart. May she rot and all the other mages with her."

"Oh, that's nice. I go to all the trouble of helping you and what do I get? 'Drop dead, Hawke, you were born evil'. I understand that you've had some really, really bad experiences, but that doesn't excuse racism!"

"There's always going to be some reason, some excuse for why mages do these things! Even if I find my sister, who knows what the magisters have done to her? What does magic touch that it doesn't spoil?" He shouted bitterly.

"How about half my family, including me?" I yelled back at him.

"I…need to go." Fenris turned and walked away broodingly.

Varric, Merrill, and Isabella stared at me as I watched him leave, practically spitting fire. After a few minutes of deep, angry breathing, I finally managed to grind out a discontented "He left before I could take a swing at him."

I calmed down a lot over the rest of the trip to the Dalish camp and by the time we found Keeper Marethari, I was almost back to normal. "You're back, Merrill!" said the Keeper. "Does this mean that you've given up blood magic and that evil mirror?"

Merrill looked nervous. "Come on," I said encouragingly. "You can do it."

"Keeper, I need the arulin'holm, the ancient carving blade of our ancestors!" she finally blurted out.

"So you haven't given up. Fine. You can have the arulin'holm if you can find the varteraal lairing in a nearby cave that has been killing our hunters recently and kill it."

"So," I asked in an undertone, "what's a varteraal, anyway?"

"Sort of a spider the size of a house with a stony exoskeleton," explained Merrill.

"Brilliant," I muttered.

Inside the cave, we almost literally ran into one of the elves from the clan as he was fleeing, panicked, from the direction we were headed. "Pol!" Cried Merrill happily.

The hunter, Pol, looked horrified. "Merrill? Stay back! Don't touch me!" He began to back away.

I rolled my eyes. "Oh, come on, it's just Merrill."

"Don't you know what she is?"

"A blood mage?" I asked dryly.

"Someone help me!" he yelled, turning to run back the way he had just been fleeing from.

"Pol, no!" shouted Merrill, realizing what the rest of us had, which was that he was running right for the varteraal. "We have to catch him!"

We caught up with Pol just in time to watch the Varteraal kill him, then attack us.

Once we had killed the varteraal, Merrill ran up to Pol's body. "Pol? Maybe it's not too late. Hawke, you can save him, can't you?"

I shook my head. "Merrill, he's gone."

Merrill began crying over Pol's body. "Why did you run? You shouldn't have run!"

"It's not your fault, Merrill," I told her, "there wasn't anything you could have done."

"He was more afraid of me than the varteraal. Pol wasn't like the others. He was city born. Worldly. He ran away from the Denerim and found us. Something is very wrong. I want to see the Keeper." I refrained from pointing out that being from the city would probably make him more likely to be afraid of blood magic, seeing as he would have grown up being indoctrinated by the Chantry.

Merrill spent the entire walk back to the camp wondering aloud what the clan had been saying about her that would cause Pol to be so frightened.

"The varteraal is dead," I told the Keeper.

"So is Pol," said Merrill. "He fled from me, straight into the varteraal."

"I had to warn the clan. I am their Keeper. It isn't too late for you to come back, Merrill."

"It is now that everyone hates me. Just give me the arulin'holm."

Keeper Marethari looked sad. "Hawke, because Merrill won't listen, I'm giving the arulin'holm to you. Don't let her do this."

Marethari handed me the arulin'holm. "Here Merrill," I said, giving it to her. The Keeper sighed.

When I got home, Fenris was waiting in the entryway. When I arrived, he stood up from the bench where he was sitting. "I've been thinking about what happened with Hadriana. You and I don't always see eye to eye, but you didn't deserve my anger. I owe you an apology."

That was honestly surprising. "So that's it. You're going to just go and apologize. Completely ignore the fact that some of what you said back there was incredibly hurtful. To put it lightly."

"I can leave, if you'd like."

"What I'd like is an explanation."

"Back when I was Danarius' slave, Hadriana was horrible to me- all the time."

"So your answer is to throw everyone born a mage into the same category? You're making excuses."

"Am I supposed to forgive, no matter how many times they hunt me down? Am I supposed to forget all the things they've done to me?"

I looked at him. "Yes. Because as long as you stay angry at everything that reminds you of them, as long as you let what they did to you influence your actions and thoughts, you won't really be free."

"You know nothing of being a slave!" he snapped. "This hate is a sickness inside me- and they put it there." He groaned. "This- isn't why I came here." He stopped talking to me and left through the front door. I sighed. I seemed to be doing that a lot lately.

After sitting around feeling frustrated for a while, I headed toward Darktown, the vague notion of going to visit Anders just for something to do. When I got there, though, I was immediately distracted. "Um, Anders?" I asked. "What are you doing?"

He looked up from where he was bending over next to the doorway. "Putting out milk. I miss having a cat."

"Oh. Ser Pounce-a-lot." Man, that must have stunk, losing his cat. I knew that losing my dog would be awful.

He nodded. "You know, I've been meaning to thank you. Having someone like you in Kirkwall making a name for herself- it's really done a lot for mages."

I smiled. That was kind of adorable. "Aww, you're cute when you get all rebellious and hot-headed revolutionary like this."

Anders seemed unhappy. "I've tried to hold back. You saw what I almost did to that girl. You've seen what I am. But I'm still a man. You can't tease me like this and expect me to resist forever."

In the back of my head a little voice was chanting. 'Yes! Breakthrough! Breakthrough!' "I don't want you to resist," I told him.

Almost instantly, he moved forward and then suddenly we were kissing. My most coherent thought was that this was definitely worth the three year wait.

Eventually, we moved apart. "This will be a disaster," whispered Anders, "But I can't live without it. We could die tomorrow. I don't want it to be before I tell you how I feel."

I smiled. "Oh?"

"I thought with Justice… this part of me was over. I can't give you a normal life. If you're with me, you'll be hunted, hated. The whole world will be against us. If your door is open tonight I will come to you. If not, I'll know you took my warning at last."

If I knew back then how true prophetic those words would be, maybe… Oh, who am I kidding, I'd have done the exact same thing. At the time, though, I, blissfully ignorant of what the future would bring, couldn't help thinking that he was being a bit overdramatic. After all, I was an apostate, too, and my life hadn't been something that could be termed 'normal' since Lothering.


	24. Chapter 24

7

I stopped by the Gallows to pick up potions. Before I could get to the stall selling them, though, I was stopped by one of the Templars, "You're Hawke, aren't you?"

"Yes…" I said suspiciously.

"Have you met with Emeric already? It's just, that note you sent, and then you show up in person…"

"Note?" I asked blankly.

"The one you sent him about the murders he was investigating. Asking him to meet you down on Idiot's Lane at midnight. He left a couple hours ago."

I looked at the sun. "It's around two in the afternoon. Also, I didn't send any notes."

"But you must've! Who else would it be?"

"The murderer drawing him into a trap?" I asked sarcastically. The Templar looked shocked. "I'll go get him before he's ambushed," I promised. "But first…" I spotted Cullen standing across the courtyard and walked cheerfully up to him. "Hello Cullen!" I said, smiling brightly.

He blinked at me. "Why are you dressed like a Grey Warden?" He asked.

I looked down at the armor that I had taken from Janika back in the Deep Roads. "Long story. I'm not one, though."

"Right." Cullen looked disconcerted. "So, what's up."

I smiled overly-cheerfully and pulled the papers that Varric had found on Ser Alrik out of my pocket. "A friend of mine found these. I thought you should see them."

Cullen skimmed through the papers. "I have to ask: How did you get the personal effects of a Templar recently found brutally murdered within our own walls?"

"Well if, hypothetically…"

Cullen sighed. "I don't want to know, do I?" He looked at the papers. "I admit that there has been some talk about this, but the Harrowing is enough. The mages themselves will decide if they must push us further."

I raised my eyebrows. "It almost sounds like you approve of the plan."

"Tranquility was invented as a mercy to stop us having to just kill mages, but many of them make it clear that they view the ritual as no better than death. They would have no controls on them."

"So, hypothetically, if non-mages could be made Tranquil, and it was a choice between becoming Tranquil or dying, you'd choose Tranquility."

"Huh?" Asked Cullen. He had obviously never thought of this before.

"Try to think about it," I told him, leaving.

I went down to Idiot's Lane, where Emeric was standing awkwardly in the middle of the street. "You know," I said loudly, coming up behind him, "You're kind of early."

"So are you," he pointed out.

"Not really. I didn't send the note saying to meet here. I only came because I heard about it from another Templar."

"But- if you didn't ask me to come here, who did?" asked Emeric, obviously confused.

I rolled my eyes. "Probably the murderer. Trying to lure you into a trap. Have you found any new leads recently?"

He shook his head. "No. Just Gascard du Puis. Who I heard is dead. Where have you been for the past few days, anyway?"

"Deep Roads. Then mentally recovering from the Deep Roads. Long story. Anyway, if Gascard's dead but someone is still trying to kill you for investigating, that probably suggests he wasn't the killer."

"So you killed an innocent man," said Emeric, looking annoyed.

"I wouldn't go that far," I said. "For all we know the person trying to kill you could just be an accomplice afraid you'll realize they were helping. Also, while it might still be uncertain over whether or not Gascard was actually the killer, he was definitely a blood mage."

"Never mind the innocent part, then," said Emeric.

"Yeah. Just be more careful, alright?" I told him. "And tell me if you learn anything else."

That night I was standing in my room looking at the fire wondering if Anders would actually show up after all, when he walked in the door. I smiled, feeling relieved. "You came!"

He smiled. "Justice doesn't approve of my obsession- his words- with you. He thinks you're a distraction."

"Well, I'm glad you showed up anyway. If you hadn't, I'd have had to go out looking for you," I said.

He moved forward. "When I was in the circle, love was only a game. It gave the Templars too much power over you if there was something you couldn't stand to lose." He turned slightly away and looked pained. "It would kill me to lose you."

"Well," I said, walking up and standing close to him. "That isn't going to be happening anytime soon."

His hand moved up to touch my face. "No mage I know has ever dared to fall in love. This is the rule I will most cherish breaking."

Much later, I was once again standing staring at the fire, this time in a much better mood. Anders came up behind me. "I love you," he said quietly. "I've been holding back from saying that. You should have a normal life, not be tied down to a fugitive with no future. But I don't ever want to leave you."

"Then don't."

Anders looked ridiculously happy. "Do you really mean that? Would you have me here, living with you? Would you tell the world, the knight-commander, that you love an apostate and you will stand beside him?"

I looked him in the eyes. "I want you right here. Until the day we die." I smiled. "Besides, it's not like I was ever in danger of having a normal life in the first place"

Anders looked blissfully happy. "For three years I have lain awake aching for you," he said quietly. "I'm still terrified I'll wake up."

"Good thing this isn't a dream, then," I said, moving in to kiss him. For once, everything was perfect.


	25. Chapter 25

Part 2

6

The next morning we met up with Varric at the Hanged Man. "Hawke." He did not look too happy. "I've got some news. You might not want to be near anything breakable when you hear it, though."

The good mood I was in instantly evaporated. "Why?" I asked suspiciously. "Are we going to have to go into the deep roads again?"

"No nothing like that. It's Bartrand. He's back in Kirkwall."

I felt a vicious feeling well up. "I've missed Bartrand. We've got a lot of catching up to do."

"I agree," said Varric. "Bianca's been missing him something awful. Let's pay a visit to his house tonight."

"Sounds good to me. So," I added, "want to go bug Aveline?"

Varric shrugged. "Sure, why not?"

When we showed up, Aveline was sitting in her office looking pensive. "Hawke!" she said, noticing me. "Can you do something for me? I can't trust anyone else with it."

"What?" I asked suspiciously.

"Just give this package to Guardsman Donnic," she said, handing me a flat object wrapped in paper. "He can't know it's from me."

I stared at her for a minute before giving in. With anyone else, I would have been suspicious, but it couldn't be anything illicit. This was Aveline, after all. "Alright."

"Thank you, I really appreciate this Hawke," said Aveline, looking grateful.

The package turned out to be a copper relief of marigolds. Donnic seemed incredibly confused to receive it.

"That was awkward," commented Anders while we walked back to Aveline's office.

"What happened? How did he react?" Asked Aveline instantly.

"Confused."

She frowned. "I thought it was obvious. Metal is strong, copper ages well, flowers are soft." I stared at her. "I obviously went about this the wrong way. Can you post the patrols for next week to the roster and watch how he reacts?"

I sighed. "If you really want me to."

"She'd do a lot better to just get this fellow alone in a room," said Anders. "Life's too short."

"Says the man who waited three years to make a move," I pointed out, pinning the list up. He looked embarrassed.

We loitered awkwardly against the wall while Sargent Brennan came over to look at the roster and immediately began making fun of Donnic for getting an easy assignment. Donnic did not look happy. In fact, upon seeing the roster he groaned and wondered aloud what he had done to get assigned to Hightown.

Aveline became agitated to hear of Donnic's reaction. "He thinks I'm punishing him? But Hightown is a safe assignment, a reward."

"It's also an easy assignment," I said, "the sort of job someone would get if they messed up and weren't trusted."

Aveline groaned. "I can fix this. I need two goats and a sheaf of wheat. You'll take them to his mother." I just looked at her. "It's a dowry tradition. Maybe it'll smooth the process." Varric snickered. "Not a word, dwarf," she said angrily.

"I wouldn't dream of mocking your unconventional courtship," he said, still looking highly amused.

"Aveline, why didn't you just tell me this?" I asked.

"What, I was supposed to say that a grown woman couldn't get up the nerve to just say what she wanted?"

"It can't be a complete mystery," said Anders. "You were married once, right?"

Aveline sighed. "That was a long time ago. Life was easier back then. Besides, I'm the captain, he's my Guardsman."

"There are places in this city that no one cares that you're captain," pointed out Varric.

"What, just go out on a date somewhere? Like it's that easy?"

"It can be," I told her. "At least try."

"Can you invite him to the Hanged Man?" Aveline asked. "Don't tell him about me, make up a story." This was getting ridiculous. Still, I nodded, leaving.

"Hey, Donnic," I called cheerfully. "You free this evening?"

"Yes, why?" he answered suspiciously.

"Nothing to worry about, just meet me at the Hanged Man, could you? There's a party."

"Of course, Serah Hawke," Donnic answered.

"Great!" I cheerfully left and reported back to Aveline. "Your date's all set up for tonight."

"Oh. Good." She looked relieved and nervous at the same time.

"Listen," I said, suddenly remembering something. "I should probably go talk to the Viscount about that incident with the poison right before I got distracted by those cultists attacking me."

"You haven't done that yet?" she asked.

"I can't believe I forgot," I admitted. "This is kind of embarrassing. I blame the cultists."

"Years of nice, quiet anxiety gone along with a whole street." The Viscount sighed. "A mad elf, pushed by zealots hidden in the very groups I have to appease. I suspected the Arishok had no intention of leaving, though I didn't realize it was just as annoying for him."

"Maybe moreso," I said.

"And now things have escalated. A Qunari delegate came to talk to me. They left, but didn't arrive back at the compound. Missing from my very doorstep. How do you think the Arishok will react to that."

I groaned. "Brilliant. You're absolutely certain they're missing?"

"Qunari do not just disappear. Talk to Seneschal Bran about it."

I shrugged and left the office.

"So," I said to Bran. "I hear you have information about the missing Qunari."

He nodded. "I would prefer if you were not involved, but yes."

"So what do you know?"

"The Guard must have noticed. Unless they were involved."

Aveline frowned. "Have any failed to report?"

"Several. Though where you would find a swordsman so willing to sell his honor and his blade, I'm sure I don't know," said Bran snootily.

"The Hanged Man," said Anders.

"Hanged Man," Varric said after him.

"Got to be," Aveline agreed.

"Well," I said, "Looks like Aveline's date might be a little more interesting than expected."

The evening did, in fact, turn out to be much more interesting than originally anticipated. As soon as we entered the Hanged Man and went up to get drinks, we walked right into one of Aveline's Guardsmen paying for his drink with far too much money. "That's a lot of coin for this place," commented Anders.

"That's right," said the slightly drunken Guardsman, who had apparently not noticed Aveline standing behind me. "Tonight I'm paid and blessed. And all I had to do was turn my head." I resisted the urge to hit myself on the head at the complete stupidity of actually saying that out loud, instead following the corrupt Guardsman over to his table. "Hey!" he said, noticing that he was being followed. "Back off. I know some important people. We're going to show this city what to do with heathen oxmen!"

At this point I gave up and smacked myself on the forehead with my palm. "So, any ideas of what to do with him, Guard-Captain," I said loudly.

That he noticed. "Guard-Captain?"

Before he could turn all the way around, Aveline had him pinned against the table. "Who paid you off?" she snarled.

The Guardsman looked terrified. "It was a Templar! He had the Grand Cleric's seal and everything!"

Aveline let go of the Guardsman's shirt. "You're on punishment duty for the next ten days for abandoning your post. Get out of here." The Guardsman whimpered and ran off. "Well, now we know. A Templar."

"How is that a surprise?" muttered Anders.

Donnic showed up not long afterward. "You go first," said Aveline. "And don't tell him I'm involved."

I nodded at her and walked over to where Donnic was standing. "Weren't there more people coming?" he asked.

"I'm sure they'll show up soon," I said.

After about an hour of sitting in awkward silence, I saw Aveline gesturing over in the corner. Then she turned and left as quickly as possible through the back. Apparently, she had failed to get up the nerve to actually go through with this. Brilliant. Not long afterward, Donnic left. From his parting words, he seemed to think I was the one interested in him.

"I'm an idiot," said Aveline.

"No you aren't," I assured her. "You just need to talk to him in a setting where you feel comfortable."

"I suppose I could go on a patrol with him," she said. "But killing highwaymen isn't very romantic and I'm tired of embarrassing myself like this."

"Then I'll kill the highwaymen, thereby ensuring a nice quiet patrol for you to talk to Donnic during."

When we went to investigate Bartrand's Hightown mansion, the place seemed, from the looks of the entryway, abandoned. "Trap?" I asked.

"Great, said Varric. "It's been ages since by brother tried to kill me."

As soon we entered the mansion, we found fresh corpses and were almost immediately attacked by guards, who for some reason were acting completely crazed. Bartrand turned out to be just as insane. He kept babbling about the lyrium idol that we had found in the Deep Roads and how he never should have sold it to 'that woman'. Varric ended up deciding to have him committed to an asylum.

"I still can't believe this," said Varric afterwards.

"It wasn't just Bartrand," I said. "That statue drove him crazy."

"Was it all just the statue though?" Asked Varric sadly. "I get the feeling that this wouldn't have happened if he didn't already have it in him to begin with."


	26. Chapter 26

7

Despite the fact that Aveline was truly horrible at flirting, she and Donnic still ended up getting together after the patrol.

After Anders, Varric, and I left Aveline and Donnic happily behind at the Keep, we were ambushed by Sebastian, who wanted help invading the estate of the Harrimans, the people who had been behind the murder of his family.

We agreed mainly to get him to stop following us around, and I figured that it would be a pretty straightforward job. It wasn't.

As soon as we entered the estate, Sebastian noted that something was off. It quickly became apparent that this was indeed the case.

The first indication that something was wrong besides the mess that the building was happened we came upon a woman standing next to a wine barrel raving. This in itself might not have been that odd; she could have just been drunk. When we entered the next room, however, to find a nobleman standing next to a pot of molten gold talking about how he was going to pour it over the elven woman being held by a servant nearby, it was obvious that something more than alcohol was causing whatever was going on here. Luckily, Sebastian had the presence of mind to punch the servant holding the woman still, allowing her to escape. The nobleman didn't seem to care. Instead, he began muttering about how maybe he should be the one to have molten gold poured over him. We quietly backed out of the room.

We wandered around until we reached the cellar, where the nobleman and woman from upstairs suddenly popped out of the shadows along with a second man, who for some reason wasn't wearing a shirt. The woman announced "You shall not enter!" at which point all three of them collapsed on the ground, eyes rolling up into their heads. It wasn't a very good tactic for stopping us from going anywhere.

We did have to fight our way past a few- alright a rather large number of- demons, but it wasn't much longer before we found the source of the trouble. Namely, a desire demon. Also Lady Harriman, who was, when we arrived, in the middle of asking the demon for more power so she could get the people of Starkhaven to actually listen to the puppet that she had put on the throne. There was a small argument as Sebastian, likely correctly, accused the demon of instigating Lady Harriman's betrayal of his family. Then the demon made a big mistake. It started to suggest I would do something similar. It got a fireball to the face as a response. By the time I was through both the demon and Lady Harriman, who had also attacked us, were dead.

When we got back to the cellar, we found the woman from earlier, who spent at least five minutes apologizing to Sebastian and being horrified about having been under demonic mind control. She ended up promising to support Sebastian when he reclaimed the Starkhaven throne. Somehow, I didn't feel that was too likely. Sebastian was too in love with the idea of being in the Chantry.

We waited until the next morning to go talk to the Grand Cleric about the missing qunari. Before we could get there, however, we were ambushed by Petrice, the woman who had sent us into the qunari ambush three years earlier. "Sister Petrice," I said politely, despite inwardly being instantly suspicious of her timing.

"It's Mother Petrice, now, actually," she said in a stuck-up tone. "What do you want?"

"Well," I said, "It seems a Templar used the Grand Cleric's seal to authorize the abduction of a Qunari delegation." Petrice looked nervous. "Let me guess, you knew. The question is, does the Grand Cleric know?"

"She trusts me," said Petrice evasively.

"In other words, she doesn't. Oh, you are in trouble."

Petrice looked angry. "Fine. Since you've figured out what happened, I'm going to sell out the Templar so I won't get in trouble. His name's Ser Varnell. Meet me here at this time and I'll show you where he took the Qunari," she said, writing something down on a slip of paper and handing it to me.

When it was time to go meet Petrice and see what she- sorry Ser Varnell- had done with the missing Qunari delegates, I dragged everyone except Isabella, who still refused to go within five hundred feet of anywhere she knew there would be Qunari, down to the place Varnell was holding his super-secret meeting.

"Ser Varnell!" shouted Petrice angrily.

Varnell obviously couldn't recognize her tone, because he seemed happy to see her. "Take a knee, brothers and sisters!" he called to the mob that was listening to him rant about the Qunari. "The Chantry blesses us!"

"You claim a blessing when you have used the Grand Cleric's seal so openly?" snapped Petrice.

"Translation: your carelessness got you caught so I'm hanging you out to dry," I said.

Petrice ignored me. "The Qunari have friends, Ser Varnell. How will you answer their allegations?"

"Actually, nobody here is really a 'friend' of the Qunari except possibly Fenris. We do disapprove of kidnapping and attacking people who can't fight back, though, so we're going to kill you," I told him.

"Templars are cowards," added Anders disdainfully. "They only pick on those whose lives they already hold in their hands."

Petrice, seeing where this was going, bolted for the exit. Before anyone else could move, Ser Varnell turned around and cut the throats of the delegates. "Oh, it is so on," I muttered, beginning to charge up a large fireball.

The Viscount was not happy when he came down and saw what had happened. He paced around looking at the bodies. "Madness, madness! Chantry involvement. Even if it is just fringe elements, this is still going to be a disaster!"

"The Chantry has seen the abuses the Templars get away with," said Anders bitterly. "Why would they not think to do the same?"

The Viscount appeared to choose to ignore this. "And you killed them. Did you kill all of them?" he looked a bit hopeful.

"All of the ones here, though I'm certain that there are others who weren't."

The Viscount looked pained. "And we can't give the bodies back to the Arishok like this."

"Actually, I'm pretty sure the Arishok will figure out what happened if you try to hide it. That'll only make it worse."

"It would, wouldn't it? I'm losing my sense of how to balance this nightmare." That much was obvious. "Thank you for helping here, at least. This would have been a lot worse without you." The Viscount wandered off, muttering to himself and looking upset.

When I got back home, I found Uncle Gamlen talking to Sandal. Gamlen seemed upset. "No! Not enchantment, Leandra! Le-an-dra!"

"Uncle Gamlen? Is everything all right?" I asked.

"There you are!" he sounded exasperated. "Where's your mother? Is she sick?"

"Noooo," I said slowly. "Why would she be sick?"

"She was supposed to be coming to visit me, but she didn't show up. Is she here? I mean, where else could she be?"

"With her suitor, maybe?" asked Bodhan.

"Since when does she have a suitor?" I asked.

"She never mentioned one to me," said Uncle Gamlen.

"Well, those lilies say otherwise," said Bodhan, pointing at a bouquet of white lilies on the side table.

Wait a minute… "White lilies?" I began to feel horror seep into my mind. "Oh, Maker, the serial killer."

"Serial killer? No! She- just took a different path to my house, that's all. I'll ask around, someone must have seen her, she's probably just gotten lost, Maker knows this city's layout is confusing enough." Gamlen was babbling.

"Right, you go do that," I told him. "I'll go talk to Aveline and have her get the City Guard to keep a lookout."

Despite having Uncle Gamlen, all my friends, the City Guard, and half of Darktown after Anders' patients found out what happened searching, there was no sign of mother until after nightfall, when Gamlen eventually found a child in Lowtown who had seen mother earlier. After being given some money, the child told us that he had seen her stop to help a man who appeared to be injured and that the man had left a trail of blood.

We followed the trail through Lowtown. Straight to the very same foundry where we had found the sack of bones three years earlier. This time we found something else.

The trail of blood led straight to a trapdoor. "Looks like someone forgot to conceal the door to his hideout," commented Varric.

"This wasn't here before," I said, feeling confused. It hadn't been. When we had searched the foundry the last time and there had been nothing in that spot but smooth floor.

As soon as we got to the bottom of the stairs hidden underneath the trapdoor we found a room full of shades that attacked us. It also contained the body of Alessa, the woman from Gascard's mansion. This was not looking good.

The next room was set up like a bedroom. "Does he…live here?" I asked. There was a creepy shrine set against the wall surrounding a painting of a woman who looked exactly like mother.

"Hey, Hawke, isn't that your family's crest?" I looked at the shield Varric was pointing to. It was. And I hadn't thought that this could get any more disturbing.

We went down some steps and found another room, this one occupied. There was a man in robes standing next to someone wearing a white hood slumped in a chair. The man looked at us as we entered. "I was wondering when you'd show up," he said. "Leandra was so sure you'd come for her."

"Of course; she knows me," I said. "Where is she?"

The mage didn't pay any attention to that and instead began to monologue. "You will never understand my purpose. Your mother was chosen because she was special, and now she is part of something… greater."

Now, of all times, I did not have the patience for this. "Where. Is. She.?"

The mage continues to monologue. "I have done the impossible. I have touched the face of the Maker and lived. Do you know what the strongest force in the universe is? Love. I pieced her together from memory. I found her eyes, her skin, her delicate fingers." As he walked over to the person sitting in the chair, I could hear a faint buzzing in my ears that I was certain came from a mixture of horror and rage. "And at last her face…oh, this beautiful face. I have searched far and wide to find you again my beloved, and no force on this earth will part us."

The woman sitting in the chair stood, wobbling on her feet. Now that she was facing us, I could see the reason for this was that the different parts of her body had been stitched roughly together. And her head- was mother's. Stuck on top of someone else's neck.

While we were staring in shock and horror, the mage threw a forcefield up around himself and summoned demons that surrounded us. Instantly, all my anger became focused and I began killing all the demons. One. By. One. Then I killed the mage as soon as he could no longer keep his forcefield up.

Mother staggered over to me and collapsed in my arms. I gently lowered her to the floor. "There's nothing I can do," said Anders quietly. "His magic was the only thing keeping her alive."

"I knew you would come," she whispered.

"You know me," I said, feeling my eyes begin to tear up. "That's what I do. Save the day."

"Don't fret," she said. "That man would have kept me trapped here, but now I'm free. I get to see your father again. But you'll be alone."

"Don't worry about me," I said, trying to smile. "I'll be fine."

"My little girl has become so strong. I love you. You've always made me so proud."

"I love you, too" I said. But she was already gone.

Much later that night, Uncle Gamlen found me at home. "Well? Did you find her?"

"Yes. She's gone."

"You were right, about the flowers and everything…I can't believe she's gone." He sobbed. "Why her? Why Leandra?"

"Will knowing bring her back?" I asked bitterly. I sure wish I didn't know why. All it did was make mother's death seem even more horrible and senseless.

"Did you kill the man who did it?"

"Oh, yes. He won't be killing anyone else."

"Good. I need to go write to Carver and Bethany. They have to know. Take care, my dear."

"Yeah." I walked upstairs and sat down on my bed, staring at the ground and feeling miserable and empty.

"I know nothing I say will change it. I just… I'm sorry."

"Hey Anders," I said, not looking up.

"You were lucky to have her as long as you did. When the pain fades, that's what will matter."

"Thanks," I said softly.

He sat down next to me. "I'm here for you. Whatever you need."


	27. Chapter 27

8

Mother's funeral was a week later.

Olivia somehow managed to show up the day before along with Zevran, her assassin boyfriend who was apparently now her assassin husband. Presumably they had been somewhere nearby, because there was no way that they could have both heard about what happened and traveled to Kirkwall in time to go the funeral. The only explanation I got was that Anders had written them about Corypheus. I decided that I didn't want to know any details. We all got roaringly drunk during the wake that followed the funeral and woke up with gigantic hangovers the next morning. Olivia and Zevran stayed for several days afterward, catching up and grilling everyone who'd been present about the Corypheus incident. Olivia yelled at Anders and Justice for being idiots and deciding that sharing a body was a good idea. Anders claimed that it was all someone called Nathaniel's idea, and she vowed to yell at him, too. Olivia also seemed absolutely thrilled to meet Varric. Apparently, she was a huge fan of his books. The two of them eventually left, seeming a bit irritated about not solving the Corypehus mystery and taking the book about Dreamers that Marethari had given me with them.

A week after the two visitors had departed, I got a letter from the Viscount asking me to come talk to him about something urgent.

When I got there, the Viscount was, as usual lately, sitting at his desk looking upset. "Seamus has run away to join the Qunari again," he said. "Please convince him to come home."

It didn't sound like I would be too successful, but I agreed to try anyway.

On the way down to the Qunari compound, we were attacked by a small group of mercenaries trying to stop us. The only reason I could tell that they were specifically after us and not just attacking anyone who passed by was that they shouted out their intentions before attacking. "So," asked Aveline. "Was that anti-Qunari, anti-viscount, or Seamus himself not wanting to be rescued."

"Could be any of the above except Seamus," I said. "He's not really the hiring-mercenaries type."

"I'm here for the viscount's son," I told the Arishok when we arrived.

"He's made his decision. Besides, he isn't even here. Maybe you should ask the viscount why he would send both you and a letter asking him to meet at the Chantry."

"The viscount would involve the Chantry?" asked Anders skeptically.

I groaned. "No, but Mother Petrice would. Not the sending-a-letter-pretending-to-be-someone-else-to-lure-someone-into-a-trap trick again. Once with Emeric was enough."

"Mother Petrice?" asked the Arishok. "If she's threatened someone under my command again…"

"Oh, I agree," I said, feeling extremely annoyed with Petrice's persistence. "She's dead."

Seamus was kneeling in the Chantry. When I came up to him and touched his shoulder, he collapsed on his side. His body was cold. He had been dead for hours.

Mother Petrice entered. "Serah Hawke. Look at what you've done. Attacking the viscount's son, a repentant convert, inside the Chantry. Your Qunari masters will finally answer." She looked gleeful at the thought.

I stared at her. "Murdering the Viscount's son? You'll really go this far?"

"To die untested would be the real crime. People need the opportunity to defend faith. Starting with you." Petrice turned to the people following her. "Earn your reward in this life and the next! These heretics must die!"

It was the attacking mob that ended up dying. At which point Petrice showed up with the Grand Cleric. "See?" said Petrice. "Traitors attacking the very core of the Chantry."

"I see," said the Grand Cleric. "There is death in every corner, young mother. It is as you predicted, all too well."

"Of course, Petrice probably left out the fact that she's the one responsible for all this," I said.

"Shut up!" Yelled petrice. "Don't spout your Qunari filth, this is the hand of the Divine!"

The Grand Cleric frowned. "I have ears, Mother Petrice. The maker would have me use them."

"The Viscount's son was tricked into coming her and killed. By Mother Petrice."

"No price is too much when we speak of eternity!" shouted Petrice, seemingly realizing that she was caught and attempting to justify herself.

"Eternity is long enough that you should not rush to meet it," answered the Grand Cleric.

"They deny the Maker!"

"And you diminish him! Even as you claim his side! Andraste did not volunteer for the flame." The Grand Cleric nodded to Aveline standing behind me. "Serah Hawke, you stand with the Captain of the Guard? The young Mother has erred in her ways. A court will decide her fate."

"Grand Cleric?" Petrice seemed honestly shocked at the Grand Cleric's response. "Grand Cleric?"

Aveline moved forward to arrest Petrice, but an arrow came out of the shadows and struck the young Mother in the heart. A Qunari archer stepped out from where the arrow had come from. "We protect those of the Qun."

The Grand Cleric looked exhausted. "Please. Someone go get Viscount Dumar."


	28. Chapter 28

Part 2

9

It was the very next night that everything went pear-shaped. I was sitting at home with Varric, Anders, Merrill and Fenris, for once having a nice quiet evening with only minimal arguing breaking out. As it turned out, however, perhaps I should have been keeping track of what Aveline and Isabella were up to instead. Not that it would have changed anything, but it would have given me at least some warning.

We were sitting around on the floor, playing a nice calm game of Wicked Grace. So far Dog was winning. And they say mabaris aren't sentient. Anyway, we were sitting around, playing cards, when Aveline and Isabella came charging in the front door, shouting at one another.

"This is important! Don't interrupt with your selfish prattle!"

"I have problems, too!

"Ha! 'What drink should I order?' and 'Who's the father?'"

"Why you-" Isabella moved to slap Aveline.

"Hey, quit it, you two!" I cut in quickly.

"Hawke!" Aveline instantly dropped the conversation with Isabella. "The Arishok is sheltering two fugitives who have 'converted' to the Qun. You have to convince him to give them back!"

"Yeah, well I'm going to die!" snapped Isabella. "There, real problem."

"Okay, one at a time."

"Remember that relic? The one Castillon was going to kill me over? I finally found out who has it. If you help me get it now before he gets rid of it, Castillon won't kill me," said Isabella.

"And I'm trying to stop a war from breaking out!"

"Well, the two things might kind of be connected."

"What?"

"The relic maybe might belong to the Qunari," said Isabella. "One of their sacred books. There's a chance they want it back."

"They can't leave without it!" Yelled Aveline.

I rubbed my forehead. It's always something. "Okay, we help Isabella first."

"You really trust her this much?" asked Aveline.

Isabella didn't help by adding, "Probably not. I wouldn't."

"Her problem has slightly more of a time constraint, anyway," I said, grabbing my staff from the corner. "Let's go."

As we left, the others shrugged, dropping their cards, and followed us. Apparently, this sounded like it would be more interesting.

We caught up with the man who had the relic at the same time as he was about to sell it to a group of Tevinter magisters. They were almost instantly ambushed by a group of Qunari, who seemed to have finally figured out where the relic was.

"Huh," I said, watching the two groups kill each other, not even noticing us.

The man with the relic took one look at the two fighting groups and bolted out the door behind us, still carrying the relic. "He's getting away!" yelled Isabella, running after him. Of course, now the Qunari and magisters, hearing that, attacked us instead of each other. Great.

By the time we got back outside, both Isabella and the relic were gone. Aveline was not amused.

When we got to the compound, several of Aveline's Guardsmen were waiting. The Qunari standing guard at the gates to the compound looked from the four Guardsmen to the six of us. "You are not all going in."

"How about I just take the Guardsmen and Hawke," said Aveline.

"That will do," said the Qunari, opening the gates and letting us in. Varric, Merrill, Anders, and Fenris moved across the street to sit on some barrels. Varric pulled out another pack of cards.

The Arishok greeted us standing down below where his big chair-throne was, carrying a gigantic battleaxe. "Shanedon."

"Greetings, Arishok," said Aveline politely. "I'm here about the elven fugitives…"

"Not important. I'd rather speak to Hawke about the stolen relic."

"Isabella took it," It felt a bit like tattling, but lying to the Arishok would be a bad idea.

"I knew that. Your admission is…welcome."

"Never mind that," said Aveline. "We're here for the fugitives."

The Arishok looked at her. "The elves are now viddathari. They have chosen to submit to the Qun. They will be protected."

"Okay." I said.

Aveline glared at me.

"They are now foreign citizens in their country's embassy. Nothing you can actually do."

"Where did you get that from?"

"Mother spent, like, the entire first year after we got back from the expedition teaching me about laws and politics and stuff. She said I needed to know now our family was important again. Also Bethany talks about that kind of stuff in her letters."

"They have chosen," said the Arishok. "And so have I. You have not hidden the abuses of your zealots or the corruption of this city. You will understand why I must do this. Let us look at your 'dangerous' criminals." Two elves came up behind us along with a couple of Qunari. "Speak, viddathari. Who did you murder and why?"

One of the elves stepped forward slightly. "A city guard forced himself on our sister. When we tried to report him, but no one did anything, so we killed him."

"That still doesn't excuse murder!" said Aveline.

"Actually, I'd have done the same thing," I said. "We did do the same thing, in fact. Remember Ser Alrik? And Ella was a complete stranger."

"That's not helping, Hawke," said Aveline.

The Arishok started talking again. "Their actions are mere symptoms. Your society is the disease. They have chosen. The viddathari will submit to the Qun and find a path your way has denied them."

"That's not your decision. You have to hand them over," said Aveline.

"Actually, it is and he doesn't, remember?"

"And what would you do in my position, Hawke?" the Arishok asked.

"The exact same thing you did," I said cheerfully. Aveline looked as though she was seriously wondering why she had brought me in the first place.

"Exactly," said the Arishok. "I cannot leave without the relic, and I cannot stay and remain blind to this dysfunction." That didn't sound good. "There is only one solution."

That really didn't sound good. Apparently Aveline noticed, too, because she began to look nervous. "Arishok, there is no need for…"

The Arishok turned away from her, saying something in the Qunari language that seemed to translate into 'attack'. The Qunari standing on the walls of the compound began throwing spears at us, skewering Aveline's guardsmen. I reached for my staff, intending to start fighting back, but Aveline grabbed my arm. "Not now, Hawke!" she yelled, dragging me backwards out of the compound.

By the time we had met back up with the others, who had migrated down the docks a bit during the meeting, the Qunari were already attacking the rest of the city. Shouting filled the air along with smoke. I wasn't quite sure how they'd had time to set so much on fire already.

"Why are they doing this?" asked Aveline.

"You heard the Arishok. He's fed up with tolerating all the corruption, racism, oppression, and general insanity in Kirkwall, so he's taking over."

When we got to Lowtown, we ran straight into a small group of people fighting Qunari right outside Gamlen's house. "Are those Grey Wardens?" asked Varric. "Where did they come from?"

"Oh, look, it's Stroud," said Anders.

"I'm more interested in the fact that Carver is with them," I said. "Suggesting that he came to Kirkwall and didn't even bother to stop by to see me at all. How difficult would it have been to walk in the door for five minutes and say 'hello'?"

"Somehow I knew it would be you." Carver did not seem happy to see me. "Hello sister, fancy meeting you here."

"I live here," I pointed out. "Why are you here?"

"Reasons," he said evasively.

"And we have to go now," announced Stroud. "We have urgent business elsewhere."

The wardens turned to leave. "Carver, wait-" I called after him. "Mother…"

"I heard," he said shortly. "Take care of yourself, alright? Try not to let that hero complex get you killed."

"Maker watch over you, my friend," added Stroud.

It took a couple minutes after the Wardens had left for me to process it, but… "Hey! I see Carver for five minutes, and he still manages to mention my alleged hero complex."

Once we got to Hightown, we met up with an irritable-looking blonde woman in Templar armor who stabbed a saarebas that attacked us in the back. "I am Knight-Commander Meredith. You really need to be more careful." Anders glared at her.

"Oh, it's good to see you, Knight-Commander," said Aveline. "The Qunari are…"

"Attacking the city? I kind of noticed. They're taking everyone to the Keep and may already be in control. We need to deal with them."

"You think?" I asked sarcastically. "Arg. Well, I'm always ready to help in a life-threatening crisis."

"Good," she said. "I'll overlook your own use of magic for the moment." I refrained from replying with something along the lines of 'and I'll overlook your attitude for the moment'. "Meet me at the Keep," she continued. "These creatures will pay for this outrage."

"Man," I said, once the Knight-Commander had left. "She really needs to lighten up."

We found the First Enchanter in the square outside my house, being thoroughly defeated by a group of Qunari.

"Thank you," he said in response to being rescued.

"First Enchanter Orsino. You're alive." Oh, now Meredith shows up- after all the attacking Qunari are dead.

"Your relief overwhelms me," said Orsino. He had a point. She sounded almost disappointed to find him still alive.

"Whatever," said Meredith. "We need to stop the Qunari."

"Oh yeah? And who will lead us? You?"

"I will fight to defend this city, as I have always done!"

"To control it, you mean! I won't have our lives tossed to the flames to feed your vanity!"

Really? They picked now to have a power struggle? "Oh, for the Maker's sake!" I yelled, interrupting the useless bickering. "I'll lead us!"

"You?" said Meredith. "You aren't even from Kirkwall!"

"Neither am I, but you don't seem to be complaining about either of us fighting to protect our home." I got the feeling that Orsino was only siding with me because Meredith was against it. "What's the plan?"

"Well, we can start with not dying," I said. "And we need to find out what they're up to."

"An excellent choice." It was pretty apparent that Meredith was only agreeing with me because it was obvious that I was going to end up in charge. We peered around a corner at the entrance to the Keep. "That is a lot of Qunari," said Meredith. "They must have already taken the Keep over. Clearly they were planning this for some time. We need to attack now."

"Are you crazy?" asked Orsino. "They have hostages! We need a distraction of some kind."

"Yes, we do," I said.

"I'll do it," said Meredith quickly.

Orsino rolled his eyes. "Please. Allow me." He stepped out into the open. "Hey! Qunari! You aren't taking over this city without a fight." He then began lobbing fireballs at the group of Qunari on the steps, who immediately rushed him, with a yell of 'Saarebas!'.

"Wow," I said as Orsino lured the Qunari around the corner, where they were ambushed by Meredith and the Templars. "He's good."

My group snuck around the edges of the buildings to reach the Keep door.

The Arishok was in the throne room, along with a large group of Qunari and a bunch of terrified nobles. "Here is your Viscount," he said, throwing Viscount Dumar's decapitated head down the steps. One of the noblemen there, who was either particularly unintelligent or had no sense of self-preservation whatsoever, made the mistake of protesting at this point. Predictably, one of the Qunari came up behind him and snapped his neck. "Look at you," said the Arishok. "Like fat dathrasi, you feed and feed and complain only when your meal is interrupted. You do not look up. You do not see that the grass is bare. All you leave in your wake is misery. You are blind. I will make you see." It really sounded like he had finally run out of patience. The Arishok noticed my entrance. "But we have guests. Shanedan, Hawke. I expected you. But, for all your might, you are no different from these bas. You do not see."

"No?" I asked. "Because right now I see someone who is willing to start a war on principle. Which is the reason that a lot of wars get started, now that I think about it. There are worse reasons."

"And what would the Qunari be without principle? You, I suspect. Prove yourself, basra or kneel with your brethren."

The Arishok nodded to the Qunari standing nearest us, and they moved forward to attack. I blasted two of them away before they could get close enough to skewer me and began shooting at them with fire, while my companions fought the others.

"Harshera!" Said the Arishok. "You are basalit-an after all. Few in this city command such respect. But you know that we cannot leave until we have the tome of Koslun. How would you suggest resolving this without it?"

A familiar voice came from the doorway. "Personally, I would suggest resolving this with it." Isabella came forward and handed the Arishok the gigantic book. "Here. It's mostly undamaged."

The Arishok looked reverent. "The tome of Koslun! We can leave now. With the thief."

"Oh, no, no, no," said Aveline. "If anyone kicks her ass, it's me!"

I gave the Arishok a flat look. "Yeah, no. You aren't taking Isabella anywhere."

"Then I challenge you Hawke. You and I will battle to the death, with her as the prize."

"What? No!" said Isabella. "If you're going to duel anyone, duel me!"

"You are unworthy," the Arishok told her.

There didn't seem to be much choice. "I accept your challenge, Arishok," I said.

"So shall it be," he said. And the fight began.

My very first action was to freeze the Arishok in ice and get the hell out of the way as he began to charge at me. The rest of the duel went much the same way. At one point, he did manage to charge into me and knock me into a wall, but the Grey Warden armor I had gotten off Janika had a habit of occasionally making the wearer difficult to notice when injured. There was a reason I liked it, and it wasn't just because it looked good, though that was certainly part of it. The Ariskok's confusion at my apparent disappearance would have been funny if I wasn't fighting for my life. Spending the entire battle dodging and freezing my opponent felt a bit like cheating, but he was at least twice my size and carrying a giant battleaxe.

As the Arishok was dying, he managed to gasp out. "One day, we shall return."

Only then did Meredith show up. "Is it over?"

I nodded. "It's over."

Someone in the background yelled "The city has been saved!"

"It looks like Kirkwall has a new champion," said Meredith sarcastically. The nobles there seemed to like the idea.


	29. Chapter 29

Part 3

1

The next three years were mostly uneventful. Aveline and Donnic got married. Tensions between the mages and Templars rose quietly in the background while life went on in what could almost be called routine, with a few notable events but nothing really bad. Olivia and Zevran showed up about six months after the Qunari attack with an infant daughter named Margret and moved into one of the spare rooms in the Amell manor. Zevran left and came back several times on his personal quest to destroy the Antivan Crows, but Olivia and the baby remained for over a year. I wasn't sure exactly what she was up to, but she spent most of her time mapping out the city and talking to various people, amassing huge quantities of notes on Kirkwall's general weirdness and possible connection to the Darkspawn, as well as arguing with Cullen about mages' rights. I honestly couldn't tell if they were friends or just old acquaintances who enjoyed debating. She also went down into the Deep Roads a couple times, leaving Margret behind with me. At one point she dragged Anders along to show her to the old thaig we had found. He complained, but it was probably good to get him away from Kirkwall and its mage/Templar conflict for a while. Having a sane-ish friend from before he was possessed certainly seemed to keep him grounded in a way that the rest of us didn't.

After the Amell-Arainis left Kirkwall, Anders started to become more and more involved with the mage underground. It was impossible to actually tell whether it was Olivia's departure and the subsequent lack of Warden-related distractions or just the fact that conditions in the Gallows were getting increasingly worse as time wore on. He began writing a manifesto of rights he was campaigning for. We found copies of it everywhere, including, at one point, Aveline's office.

The first sign that things were finally beginning to come to a head was when I left my house one morning to find First Enchanter Orsino standing on a wall in the square right outside my house, making a speech to a large group of nobles. "I know you fear us, but Meredith is using that to take control of the city! Every time someone tries to replace Viscount Dumar, she prevents it. And you have seen the chaos of her reign! Will you allow it?" There was a muttering in the crowd. Oh brilliant. I really had honestly only gone out to go shopping, and I run into this.

Of course Meredith just had to show up at that point. "Everyone go home! This farce is over."

"Oh, yeah? Maybe some people will disagree with you," snapped Orsino, pointing at me.

"Don't hide behind the Champion, Orsino. She has no role in this."

"Oh, come on," I said, smirking slightly. "What's wrong with a little debate?"

"It's not a debate, it's treason!" snapped Meredith.

"What, scared?" asked Orsino.

"I fear nothing! My only interest is in keeping order and protecting the innocent!"

"Somehow I think that go a lot more smoothly if you stopped preventing us from picking a new Viscount," I pointed out dryly.

"Ha! See? You're through!" said Orsino.

"That is for me to decide!" snarled Meredith.

Before the argument could devolve further, the Grand Cleric arrived. "Orsino, how about you go back to the Gallows?" He nodded politely and left. "And Meredith? Go home and calm down. Like a good girl." Meredith didn't look too happy but she went. "Thank you for stepping in, Champion. This could have been a lot worse."

I rolled my eyes. "I doubt anything short of locking them up will stop the two of them from arguing."

Grand Cleric Elthina sighed. "I'm afraid you're right. Everyone go home," she said, louder. "This isn't going to be resolved anytime soon." The crowd dispersed, most looking unhappy.

Ugh. I ended up going back inside, no longer really in the mood to go out. As soon as I went in, of course, I found a very stressed Anders telling off Merrill. "Close the curtains! Do you know what the Templars could do if they catch two apostates talking?"

"No," Merrrill said. "What?" Oh, Merrill.

Anders groaned, causing Merrill to leave. Probably because she had realized that he was annoyed with her. "Her ignorance is going to be what draws the Templars down on us," he complained.

"Well," I said cheerfully. "If that's all you're worried about…" I pulled out my key-ring and handed one of the keys to him.

"What's this?" he looked confused.

"I humbly present your emergency escape route. Remember how there's a door to the Estate's cellars about five feet from your clinic? This is the key to open it."

Anders smiled. "It means more to me than I can say to have had a partner these past three years. It makes me believe we can do anything."

I smiled back. "Was there ever any doubt?"

That night, I came home to find Isabella going through the mail stacked up on the sideboard. "Need anything?" I asked, rather annoyed at how she was going through my things.

"Yes." Isabella turned to look at me. "Remember Castillon? He's in town. Somewhere. One of his lackeys has been hanging around at the Blooming Rose and I need your help getting him to lead me to Castillon."

"Sounds like you have a plan," I commented.

She nodded. "I need you to pretend to sell me out so that he'll take me to Castillon then come in, help me bust out at the last minute, and kill Castillon with me."

"This sounds like it has the potential to go very wrong," I said.

"Help me anyway."

I groaned. "All right, but I want you to know that I think that this is a very bad idea."

To everyone's surprise, Isabella's plan went perfectly. She even got a new ship out of it.

Merrill was still trying to get her evil mirror fixed. The morning after Isabella got rid of Castillon, Varric pestered me into going down to Merrill's house to try to convince her to actually take a break and go outside. "Oh! Hawke!" Merrill seemed pleased to see me. "Did you come here to see me? Is something wrong?"

"It's Kirkwall," I pointed out. "I'm sure that even if there isn't, there will be soon."

Merrill sighed, looking back at the mirror. "I thought I saw Tamlen the other day in the market. Just out of the corner of my eye. Then he was gone."

"Tamlen… The one who the mirror killed?"

"Yes. I don't know what it meant. Maybe I'm just going mad. I miss the clan. Even Keeper Marethari."

"She misses you, too," I said. "She asks me to convince you to come home visit literally every time I see her."

"I'm sure she'd like to see me," said Merrill. "She loves to lecture. I bet her new First appreciates it. I wish…" Merrill sighed. "Maybe Varric was right. We should go out for a while. I could use some sunshine." Success! Merrill was going to see the light of day!

"Come on," I said, "Let's go to the Hanged Man. The pub is always a good destination."

Varric was already at the Hanged Man when Merrill and I got there. Admittedly, this was not actually too surprising, seeing as he lived there in one of the apartments, but Anders was with him. He had apparently just finished telling some sort of story when we arrived. "…And if you think that was bad, I should tell you about the Blackmarsh."

Varric laughed. "See, Blondie? When you say things like that, it just makes me glad I didn't meet you sooner. Who goes to a place called 'Blackmarsh' on purpose?"

"Olivia," I answered, sitting down next to them with Merrill. "It's where they met Justice."

"Of course," said Varric dryly. "Now if they called it Beermarsh… no, still doesn't work."

"It's the 'marsh' part," said Anders. "Sort of cancels out anything else. Flowermarsh? Kittenmarsh? Nope. Still no good."

"Also it was haunted," I added.

Anders stood up. "I should probably go. Things to do in the clinic." He left.

"Need anything?" Varric asked me.

"Yeah, alcohol," I said. "Finally managed to get Merrill out of the house. So, what's the news?"

Varric shrugged. "Same as it has been. No viscount, power vacuum. Trouble's brewing." He sighed. "Get rid of one threat and another appears. I'm starting to think this city's in love with crisis."

"I'm pretty sure Olivia was trying to prove that scientifically. The only question is when things are going to boil over."

"Hope you're ready." Varric patted his crossbow. "I'm keeping Bianca close."

"Probably a good idea," I admitted. "Speaking of, I should probably go after Anders. Aveline found a copy of the manifesto in the guard barracks again. She was kind of annoyed." I stood up and headed towards Darktown, leaving Merrill with Varric.

When I got to Darktown, Aveline was already there and arguing with Anders. "You think I don't know that the city guard is just another arm of the Templars?" he was saying furiously.

"It is not!" shouted Aveline. "You take that back!"

"Woah!" I hurried over and stepped between them. "Let's not kill each other here." Aveline glared at Anders and stomped out of the clinic, looking incensed. "What were you two arguing about?" I asked.

"Just… stressed. While you're here, I was wondering…" Anders looked nervous.

"Yes?" I asked.

"I'm going to be trying something," he said, not looking straight at me. "And I thought you'd want to be part of it."

"What?"

He looked up. "What I did with Justice was unnatural. It should never have happened."

"What brought this on?" I asked. "Is there some way to get you un-possessed or something?"

Anders nodded. "I've been researching magic used by Tevinter magisters- they're the only ones who ever try to reverse possession instead of just decapitating the victims. Anyway, I've found the formula for a potion that can separate Justice and me, without killing either of us."

"That still sounds a bit dangerous," I pointed out.

"It's magic, there are always risks."

"I'll help," I promised.

Anders smiled. "I knew you'd stand behind me in this. Even if…" His face fell again.

I frowned. "Even if… what, exactly?"

"Nothing. I've got almost all of the ingredients for the potion, but there are a couple that I'll need help collecting- a powder called 'sela petrae' and a small amount of drakestone. Getting them will involve going into areas where I'll probably be attacked and I could use some backup- sela petrae will be in the 'bandit highway of Kirkwall' sewers and there's drakestone in the Bone Pit mine, but..."

"We're having more dragon trouble," I finished. "I need to clean the place out again anyway. I swear that mine is more trouble than it's worth, sometimes." Anders laughed. "So," I continued. "Is this just a potion or is there some kind of ritual to do?"

"Just the potion," said Anders. "Mix it up and… boom! Justice and I are free. And we can take our rightful place among free mages." In retrospect, that comment should probably have been a warning sign, but, well, everything becomes clearer in hindsight.

Anders and I went down into the sewers. I ended up fending off various attacks from various criminal elements while he looked for the sela petrae. By the time he had found enough of it we had been attacked half-a-dozen times and smelled awful. As soon as we exited the sewers, we went home through the conveniently-located entrance to the Amell cellars to go take baths and change clothing.

Afterward, we went to round up some of the others to go to the Bone Pit with us so we could kill the high dragon that had started nesting there and get the drakestone without being burned to a crisp. Merrill, Varric, and Isabella were all pretty enthusiastic at the idea of slaying a dragon, Aveline was glad someone was getting rid of 'that menace', and Fenris shrugged and followed along after us.

After we killed the dragon, we stuck around the Bone Pit long enough for Anders to gather the drakestone he needed and then headed back to the Hanged Man for the obligatory 'we killed a high dragon' celebration. When we arrive at the tavern, however, Fenris looked nervously at a young elven woman. "So," he began. "Remember how, when we killed Hadriana three years ago, she said I had a sister? Well, I spent all this time tracking her down, and I've kind of asked her to meet me here."

The woman stood up, walking over to us. "Leto? Is it really you?"

Fenris stepped forward, "Varania?" Before he could say anything else, a man in the robes of a Tevinter magister appeared at the top of the stairs, flanked by armed men. "Danarius!" Fenris snarled. It was a trap. Wonderful. The rest of the Tavern's patrons seemed to realize that something was about to go down and scattered.

"That's Danarius?" I asked Fenris. He nodded. "I hate slavers," I said, shooting a fireball through the magister's chest, quickly followed by an ice spell to prevent the tavern from catching on fire. The remaining patrons politely ignored the fact that I had just used magic.


	30. Chapter 30

Part 3

3

The next morning Anders came up to me to talk. "There is one more thing I must ask of you, my love," he said, sounding sad. "And I can't tell you why. I need to get inside the Chantry without being seen. Will you distract the grand cleric for me? Long enough for me to do what must be done?"

This was sounding distinctly ominous. "What must be done?" I asked. "Anders, what are you planning?"

"You would not thank me if I told you," he said. "If you support freedom for mages, help me. That's all I can say."

"This was never about you and Justice, was it?" I asked. "That was a lie." I sighed. Then, I did something that was probably an incredibly stupid idea. "I'll help you," I told him, completely ignoring my own sense of foreboding. "I will not desert you now."

"I do not deserve your love," he said softly. "I promise, whatever happens, it's on my head. It will not come back on you."

I should have asked what that meant, but I didn't. Instead, I went with him to the Chantry and walked over to speak to the Grand Cleric while he slipped off. Anders joined us after a while. The Grand Cleric looked at him. "Your soul is troubled, child," she said to him. "I hope you found a balm for it here." In what turned out to be a great irony, the way she pronounced 'balm' made it sound almost like 'bomb'. Anders nodded stiffly and we left.

Feeling unsettled, I ended up going down to visit Varric, something which would probably have been much better at cheering me up if we hadn't had to go take a look at Bartrand's old house, which was apparently haunted. There turned out to still be a shard of the lyrium idol that had driven Bartrand crazy left in the building. When we found it, it almost got Varric ensnared with its creepy way of making people obsessed with it. At least I got to fight the weird rock golem that it had created.

I took the lyrium shard back home, planning to give it to Sandal to turn into an enchanting rune that would hopefully be not-evil. When I got back, though, Zevran was lurking in the foyer. "What are you doing here?" I asked him, handing the lyrium off to Sandal, who took it with a happy exclamation of "enchantment!".

"Luring some Antivan Crows into a trap," said Zevran, shrugging. "Just pretend I'm not here."

"Riiight…" I decided that I really didn't want to know. "I'm going to go visit Gamlen. I better not come back to find dead assassins all over my house."

Visiting Gamlen turned out to be more interesting than expected. He had gotten a letter from someone saying that they had a jewel called the Gem of Keroshek, which it turned out that he had spent a lot of his time and money searching for, to the point where his girlfriend, Mara, left him. The person with the Gem turned out to be a woman named Charade, an extremely talented archer who had found the Gem and sent Gamlen the letter as part of a convoluted scheme to meet him that she had come up with after learning that he was her father. I ended up simply dragging her down to Lowtown to go talk to him, at which point it turned out that the reason Gamlen was such a deadbeat was that he hadn't even known Charade existed. I left them actually talking to one another, feeling a bit stunned that Gamlen, of all people, should have such an interesting past. The whole 'wasting his life and fortune in search of a treasure' thing was way more dramatic than I had ever expected out of him.

When I got home, Zevran had out a towel and was drying off a suspicious recently cleaned spot on the floor. "You got a letter," he commented, waving at the sideboard.

I raised my eyebrow at Zevran. "You don't want to know," said Anders, gesturing at Zevran's cleaning supplies and the wet floor from where he was sitting in the corner. I went over to pick up the letter. It was from Meredith asking for me to come talk to her about 'something important'. Brilliant. I thought for a moment about simply ignoring it, but if I did that then she would probably just keep bothering me until I answered. "Great, now I have to go visit the Knight-Commander," I muttered. Sighing, I stuck the letter in my pocket and headed back out to see her. Anders followed. I suspected it was to give me backup if I had to fight my way out.

When I got to Meredith's office in the Gallows, she was busy looking over paperwork, dressed in full armor. It occurred to me that except for the time I had rescued Keran from the blood mages, I had never seen a Templar not wearing their armor. "Champion," said Meredith curtly, as I came in. "Welcome."

"You wanted to talk to me about something?"

Meredith nodded, leading me out of the office. "There was an incident within the Gallows. A number of phylacteries were destroyed and several mages took the opportunity to escape." Gee, I wonder why. I raised my eyebrows at Anders behind Meredith's back. He shook his head slightly. Not him, then. "We managed to recapture most of them," (Anders looked annoyed) "but three of the mages are still eluding us. I was hoping you would track them down. People talk to you that won't talk to us. I'm asking you so you'll get a chance to see what we Templars have to deal with every day."

"So… you don't want to do your job and are therefore asking me to do it for you?"

"Talk to the mages' families. You'll see for yourself that they must be recaptured."

I sighed. "Fine. But only because the alternative would be to have thugs going around the city shaking people down for information."

Meredith's creepy Tranquil secretary gave us the details of the three missing mages families. Huon, Evelina, and Emile de Launcet. The first person on the list was actually one of Merrill's neighbors, Nyssa, who was Huon's wife. She admitted that Huon had come to see her after the Templars had questioned her, acting odd, and she had sent him away. She seemed believe that he needed mental help and was especially concerned by the fact that he had said he would come back to 'take her away from this forever' just after nightfall. I ended up agreeing to come back at nightfall as well and Nyssa seemed quite relieved at the promise.

Said nightfall was only a couple of hours away, so Anders and I just went into Merrill's house to visit while we waited. When it began to become dark out, all three of us went back outside, where Nyssa was just beginning to close up her shop. Across the street, an elven man started toward her. She looked up. "Huon…" Nyssa began to back away. A dark red swirl of blood magic surrounded Huon and Nyssa's eyes glazed over. She started walking dreamily toward him.

"Nyssa!" I slung a pair of spells in quick succession, the first one flinging Huon away against the wall of a building and the second pulling Nyssa backward toward us; grabbing hold of her while the angry blood mage staggered to his feet and summoned a dozen shades to attack.

Nyssa seemed pretty upset about Huon's blood magic attack and his subsequent death and it took about an hour for Merrill to calm her down, after which we went to look for the remaining pair of mages.

We visited the de Launcets next. The Comtesse was in the middle of denying ever seeing Emile when his the Comte came in and, not noticing that she had visitors, and began complaining that he was telling everyone that he was their son and the Comptesse had given him gold. I coughed. The Comte, realizing that I was here, looked horrified. "I can help," I said, quickly. "Tell me where your son is and I'll be able to stop the Templars from killing him."

"You don't think they'll really hurt him, will they? I just wanted him to have a chance to get a new life," wailed the Comtesse.

"A new life which involves sitting around the Hanged Man getting drunk," said the Comte gruffly. "It's a miracle the Templars haven't already caught him." He looked at me. "Help us, please, Champion. He's not a blood mage, just a foolish boy. Don't let the Templars kill him."

"Don't worry, I won't," I promised.

The Comte looked relieved. "Thank you, Champion."

Emile de Launcet was, indeed, sitting around the Hanged Man getting drunk. "Hey, Hawke," greeted Varric. "Here to drink?"

"Actually, I'm looking for a Circle escapee," I said. "Emile de Launcet."

"He's over there," said Isabella, nodding at a well-dressed young man with tonsured red hair sitting at one of the tables. "He's been flirting with people all night."

"Thanks." I walked over to him. "Emile de Launcet?" He looked up blearily from his drink and slurred out a pickup line. "Ugh," I muttered.

Anders looked at him sadly. "He's lived in the Circle for his entire life. He doesn't know how to function in the real world."

"He's just going to have to learn," I said. "My name's Hawke," I said to Emile. "I've been looking for you."

Emile stood up. "Oh, bugger. I know what this is about. I'm not a blood mage, alright? I only told those women I was to make myself look, y'know, dangerous and suave." How was he even still alive?

"Do you have a death wish?" asked Anders. "You grew up in the Circle, you ought to know what the Templars do to blood mages."

"I've been in the Circle since I was six!" he wailed. "I've never had the chance to do any of the things that normal people take for granted. " He sighed. "If you're going to kill me, do it. I'd rather die drunk."

I rolled my eyes. "Okay. Here's the deal. You're mother gave you that money you're wasting here so you could leave Kirkwall and go have a life. Do that. Go down to the docks and buy yourself passage on the next ship out of here. Don't stick around for the Templars to eventually figure out where you've gone." Emile thanked me profusely and ran out. I rubbed my temples. "Ugh. Evelina now?"

Evelina turned out to be a blood mage, too. We found her in the Undercity, terrifying her adopted children. When we confronted her, she transformed into an abomination and attacked us.

When the fight was over, the two boys came out from the pillar they had hidden behind. "I don't understand," said the elder, the younger still hiding behind him. "Evelina loved us. She saved us. Why would she try to hurt us now?"

"She wouldn't," I told him. "That wasn't Evelina. That was a demon. Evelina was the brave, kind, loving person that you knew. Try to remember her that way."

"I…I'll try," he stuttered.

"This isn't going to stop," said Anders, sounding frustrated. "The Templars force our hand. They make us take drastic measures just to be free."

"Like Evelina did," said the boy.

Anders nodded. "Exactly."

"I just don't know what we'll do now," said the boy miserably.

"You'll take care of the others," I said. "I know you can."

The boy's confused, unhappy expression firmed. "Yes. I will." He and the younger boy left.


	31. Chapter 31

Part 3

3

Meredith was skeptical when I told her that all of the escaped mages – including Emile de Launcet- were dead, but she didn't call me out on the lie. A couple moderately uneventful weeks went by during which the only event of note was that Jevan, the previous guard captain who had been fired for corruption came back to cause trouble for Aveline and ended up getting killed. Most unfortunate.

Only a couple days after Jevan's tragic demise, while we were passing by the Chantry, a worried looking dark haired woman in a violet dress ran up to us. "Mistress Hawke, I need your help. The Grey Wardens mounted an expedition to the Deep Roads to retrace your route and discover whatever it is you found years ago. It's sheer insanity and my brother- Nathaniel Howe- he went with them."

"Nathaniel?" asked Anders, sounding surprised. "Well, put me in a dress and call me a Templar. How is the old boy doing?"

The woman glared at him. "He's missing, Serah. Pay attention."

Anders shrugged, unconcerned. "Oh, I'm not worried about Nathaniel. He's gotten out of worse places alive."

I frowned. "Is this the same Nathaniel from Amaranthine?"

Anders nodded. "Hordes of darkspawn, psychotic broodmothers- usual Warden business." I really didn't want to know what a broodmother was, let alone a psychotic one. "I wonder if Nathaniel ever found a sense of humor?"

I turned to the woman. "Are you sure you should be worried? Wardens go into the Deep Roads all the time."

"They were supposed to be back three weeks ago." Okay, that was slightly worrying. "I'd go to the Wardens but by the time I reach Vigil's Keep…"

I sighed. "Well, at least we know where they're going."

We found Nathaniel about halfway to the thaig, separated from the other Wardens. He seemed a bit confused to see us. "You're the Champion of Kirkwall, aren't you and… Anders?" He sounded shocked.

"Making friends as always, I see," said Anders, gesturing to the dead darkspawn surrounding us.

Nathaniel laughed. "There's no escaping you, it seems."

"I'm special that way."

"That's one way to put it."

"So, your sister says you were following my expedition's route. Why?" I asked, interrupting their banter.

"You went further into the Deep Roads than anyone believed possible. The First Warden himself ordered this investigation. I was offered a generous share of the salvage, plus extra coin up front to discourage any… curiosity."

I raised my eyebrows at that. "I'd ask if Olivia showed you how to get to the thaig, but I don't see why there would be a second expedition after she had already been there."

"Commander Amell went to the thaig?"

I ignored that. "So, the question is, how did you know which way to come?"

At that point, Carver popped out of one of the side tunnels, breathing heavily. "Nathaniel? Oh, thank the Maker. Everyone else is dead. Wait, what are you doing here?" he asked, looking at me.

"Never mind." I said. "Is it absolutely vital that you get yourselves killed trying to get to the thaig or can we all leave the Deep Roads now?"

A couple days after we got back from the Deep roads, I began to feel a bit sick to my stomach. Instantly, my thoughts flew to Carver. In a possibility-of-Blight-sickness induced panic, I ran to the clinic. "Anders!" I grabbed onto his collar. "Anders!"

He looked on the verge of panicking himself. "What's wrong?"

"I feel sick. And we just got back from the Deep Roads. Have I caught the darkspawn Taint? Am I going to die?"

He took my hands and calmly extricated them from his shirt. "It's not the Taint. Not only would I sense it, but it's been a couple days. Even if you'd got it on our very last day in the Deep Roads you'd be showing other symptoms by now. Your veins aren't starting to turn black, so you're fine. It's probably just a stomach bug. Or food poisoning. Here." He hit me with a small healing spell. "That should've fixed whatever it is."

I laughed shakily. "Well, that was the most embarrassing thing I've ever done. I panicked. I never panic."

"It's a perfectly normal reaction, actually. And I promise not tell anyone. We'll laugh about this later."

"Much later," I said. I sighed. "I think I'm going to go find something calming to do."

I went to see Keeper Marethari.

"… And I actually panicked. I already said this to Anders, but it was seriously the most embarrassing thing I've ever done."

"It was a perfectly reasonable assumption to make, considering that you had just been to the Deep Roads." Said Marethari calmly. "And after what happened to your brother it is understandable that it would alarm you."

"I was more than alarmed, I was completely panicking." I sighed. "And to top it all off, I'm still feeling nauseous. Maybe it's stress."

"This is also possible," said Marethari. "Let me see." There was a swirl of magic that glowed briefly around me before vanishing. Marethari looked surprised for a moment and cast the spell again with the exact same result. She frowned and began casting more spells that seemed somewhat similar.

"Um, Keeper?" I asked nervously.

"Hold still." After a few minutes she stopped casting spells at me and sat back down. "Well, I have good news and I have… news that could be either good or bad, depending on how you look at it."

"What?"

"You're not sick."

"What's the other news?" I asked suspiciously.

"You're pregnant."

And that was how, after years of taking all sorts of complete insanity entirely in stride, I ended up panicking twice in the same day.


	32. Chapter 32

Part 3

4

A few days afterward, Merrill came to see me. "I still can't make the eluvian work. I think that I need to go back to the spirit that helped me earlier."

"Merrill, I'm sure there's a better option than demon summoning. Someone must know what you need to do to fix the mirror."

Merrill shook her head. "The eluvian was lost before Arlathan fell. The only creatures who would know anything about it anymore are in the Fade. I've called to the spirit, but he isn't answering. He was sealed in an artifact in a cave on Sundermount. I have to go look for him there. But… if it goes wrong… if he possesses me… I need you there to kill me."

I looked at her. "That is a horrible plan."

"Please, Hawke."

I sighed. "Saying no is only going to result in you attempting to do this on your own and probably turning into a rampaging monster, isn't it?" I asked rhetorically. "All right, I'll come with you."

Mainly because I was hoping they might talk Merrill out of her crazy plan on the way, I brought Anders and Aveline along with us when we went to go find the cave with the evil artifact in it. Merrill and Anders spent the entire trip up the mountain bickering about it but it didn't seem to change her mind. This was going to go badly.

The idol was certainly evil-looking. As we approached it, I noticed that it bore a strong resemblance to a murderous monkey. "Something's wrong," said Merrill. Of course. "This was where the spirit was bound but now it feels… empty."

"So… it got out?"

"It shouldn't have been able to. I don't understand what happened. He can't have left on his own."

"I happened," said a raspy, strained voice from behind us. We whirled around to see Keeper Marethari.

Merrill went pale. "Keeper, what have you done?"

"The demon's plan was always for you to complete the mirror," said Marethari weakly. "It would have been a doorway out of this prison and into our world. You would have been his first victim." Merrill shook her head, looking like she was about to cry. "I couldn't let that happen, da'len."

"So, you stopped the demon? Merrill's safe?" I asked hopefully.

"Not yet. The demon is still here. I couldn't fight it in the Fade while it was trapped and I couldn't banish it without just making it stronger. So I made myself its prison. Kill me, and it dies too. Merrill will finally be safe."

"No!" cried Merrill. "You can't ask me to… I won't do this!"

"You always knew your blood magic had a price da'len. I have chosen to pay it for you." She closed her eyes. "Dareth shiral." Marethari's form vanished, replaced by that of a gigantic pride demon that roared and swung at us.

When the demon was vanquished, it collapsed in on itself, revealing Marethari once more. "Da'len?"

Merrill ran up to her. "Keeper!"

Marethari got slowly to her feet. "You've beaten it, da'len. You are so much stronger than I imagined. The demon is dead. Let's leave this awful place. The clan should hear the good news."

I really, really wanted to believe that Keeper Marethari was going to be alright, but… Saying that Merrill was strong sounded like the sort of thing a pride demon would say. "You said earlier that killing you would kill the demon," I said slowly.

Merrill's eyes widened. "I'm sorry, Keeper," she said softly. She took her knife and stabbed Marethari. The Keeper's dead body fell to the ground. Merrill knelt next to it. "What have you done? I don't want this. I never wanted this! Creators, please let this be a bad dream… I'll wake up and feel like an idiot, and she'll scold me for not listening…"

"You knew that this kind of thing could happen," I said.

"If there was a price to pay, I should have paid it!" said Merrill. "She had no right to interfere!"

"She loved you, Merrill! Of course she interfered."

"That was the noblest thing I've ever seen anyone do," said Anders. "The world is poorer for having you in it instead of her," he added in a biting tone.

Merrill stood up. "I should go to the clan. Someone needs to know, to come… take care of her." Merrill began heading blindly for the exit and the rest of us followed her. In her current state she might fall off a cliff by accident or something.

Outside the cave, we were accosted by what looked like half the clan. "We know the Keeper came here," said the leader of the group, Fenarel. "Where is she? What's happening?"

Merrill looked down. "Fenarel, the Keeper, she…"

"Look at her, she's covered in blood!" said the woman standing next to Fenarel.

"What have you done, Merrill?" He asked, walking up to the cave mouth, calling for the Keeper.

"…she's dead."

"I should have guessed you'd turn on her, you monster," said the woman bitterly.

I stepped forward. "Keeper Marethari was possessed by a demon. I swear to you that I won't let anyone be hurt by Merrill's blood magic ever again."

Fenarel gave me a long look. "Take her and go. If we see her again, we'll kill her."

I nodded. "Come on, Merrill." We walked silently past the accusing eyes of the elves and began down the mountain.

When I visited her the next day, I found Merrill standing in front of the still broken eluvian, sobbing. "She's gone. She's really gone…"

"Merrill?" I said quietly.

"Why did this happen? Why didn't any of them listen to me? All this time I thought I could help them. That I could save them. But they won't let me, will they? They'll destroy themselves just to escape my help."

"You can't help people who don't want to be helped, Merrill."

"I suppose not. All this time I've wasted. Maybe it's time I stopped living for them. They'll kill me if I go back. I'm all alone." Merrill looked miserable. "What will I do now?"

"The clan might not want your help, but there are plenty of elves in Kirkwall who could use it," I pointed out.

"That's true…. The Dalish always say we're the only true elves. I've lived here for years and I never even thought…. I've barely even looked at them. I feel like such a fool. Thank you." Merrill turned back to the mirror, but she seemed less unhappy now.

"Come on, let's go out to the Hanged Man."

"I don't see how drinking will help," said Merrill.

"This isn't about drinking. Well, you can drink if you like, but you can't go to the Keeper's funeral without the clan killing you on sight, so I was thinking we could have a wake instead. You know, sit around, talking about all the good things about her life and stuff."

Merrill still looked unhappy. "Alright."

When Merrill and I got to the Hanged Man, I bought a mug of beer and a mug of water for myself. We sat down and I slid the beer over to Merrill. She looked confused. "You're having water?"

"Nah, potion. Keeper Marethari…" I almost choked on the name of the now-deceased woman. "She said I shouldn't drink alcohol and showed me how to make this thing instead." I took out the pouch full of the herb mixture she had shown me how to make the last time I had seen her before… the mirror thing… and dropped some of it into the mug of water, charging it with magic.

Merrill frowned suspiciously at the potion. "Why are you taking an anti-morning sickness potion?"

"Because I have morning sickness, obviously."

Merrill seemed to catch up. "You're going to have a baby? That's wonderful!"

Well at least now she was distracted. The potion tasted awful, though.


	33. Chapter 33

Part 3

5

The next evening, First Enchanter Orsino sent me a message asking me to come talk to him because he needed help with something. As it turned out, what he needed help with was finding out what group of mages was doing meeting in Hightown that night. Resigning myself to a night with no sleep, I agreed to help.

Due to the fact that Anders was busy at the clinic and Aveline had an actual job to do, I took Fenris, Varric , Isabella, and Merrill with me to investigate the secret Hightown mage meeting. Which turned out to be a secret Higtown mage/Templar meeting. Okay, I honestly had no idea what this was about by this point.

As soon as we arrived, one of the mages accused us of spying for Orsino- technically true- and then the one who had shouted ran away, followed by one of the Templars. The rest of the group attacked. We had to kill them to protect ourselves and I had no idea how Orsino was going to explain this one.

While searching the conspirators' bodies for any sort of clue of what they had been meeting about, I found a note talking about a second meeting that night, this one in one of those warehouses that routinely got used for various types of criminal activity. So, we went down to the docks to crash the second secret meeting.

In the warehouse, we found several more mages and Templars, including the mage and Templar who had run away. "See, I told you she was after us!" yelled the mage.

The Templar stepped backward, shaking his head. "No… Not her. I can't do this." With surprise, I realized that it was Keran, the Templar who I had rescued from the blood mages all those years ago.

Keran ran off and others there attacked us.

Once they were dead, as well. Keran stepped out from behind a pile of crates. "I told them not to do it, I swear. If I knew you were the one they were talking about, I'd have warned you. I don't hold with kidnapping, not after what I went through."

"What are you talking about?" I asked, confused.

"They said someone was spying, that we needed leverage, someone they cared about. As a hostage." That… was not good. I glanced around. The only people missing were Aveline, Sebastian, and Anders. Or it could be Carver, Gamlen, Charade, even Zevran if they were feeling stupid… Nobody else was close enough to Kirkwall to make a reasonable hostage choice. But among those who were… dammit there was no way to know for sure. "We just got word they pulled some mage from out of Darktown," continued Keran.

It felt like my chest was filled with ice. "Anders! You bastards took my…" Furious and also absolutely terrified, I grabbed Keran. "Where is he?!"

"The ruins on the Wounded Coast. We have a kind of base there. They should have just talked to you. You're a reasonable person, you must see how dangerous Meredith is. Thrask says that she'll cause open war with the mages if she stays in charge. We have to take her down."

"I don't care about Meredith!" I let go of him. "Get out of here." I turned to the others. "Wounded Coast. Now." I began striding toward the door.

We went directly to the Wounded Coast. On the path down to the ruins we were halted by Samson, the lyrium-addicted Templar. "Are you part of this plot?" I asked angrily.

"Sort of. Meredith kicked me out of the Templars and I'd like to get her unseated and get my place in the Order back, but… maybe she was right. Give those mages a hint of freedom and…"

This was taking too long. "Get out of my way," I snarled. Samson, taking a look at my face, quite wisely got out of my way.

We walked down into the center of the group of mages and Templars in the ruins. I should probably have been paying attention to them, but my eyes were drawn to Anders, lying unconscious on his side next to a firepit.

"I suppose it was too much to hope that you wouldn't have come here." Ser Thrask walked out into the middle of the ruin, followed by Grace and Alain, the two Starkhaven mages. They were standing between me and Anders. I gritted my teeth. "But I can't understand why you still support Meredith," continued Thrask. "It was not the Circle that kept Feynriel safe from demons. It was you. Please, Champion. I have nothing but respect for you. It's Meredith we must see gone."

"Yes. Meredith is a lunatic," I agreed. "She is completely insane and needs to be gotten rid of. I agree with you there. Now get. Out. Of. My. Way." My eyes darted back to Anders.

"Of course," said Thrask. "I should have known you would see the threat Meredith poses. I am sorry for any distress I caused you or your friends." He began to move to the side. "Let the hostage go."

"No!" snarled Grace. "He dies. Then the Champion."

"Stand down, Grace," said Thrask, getting between her and Anders. "We won't kill an innocent to achieve our ends. It gains us nothing to become Meredith."

"Meredith! What do I care about Meredith? I'm here for the Champion!"

"Whatever you want, just tell me," I said placatingly.

"I would rather die a thousand deaths than spend another hour in the Circle! I have been waiting years to get my revenge! Alain, kill the hostage!"

The younger mage stepped backward a bit. "I…I don't know, Grace."

"Alain…" I said slowly.

Grace glared at him. "Don't defy me, boy! Without me, you'd be nothing!" She backhanded him hard across the face, knocking him down. "If you're too squeamish, I'll do it myself!" She began to turn towards Anders. With an inarticulate snarl, I flung an ice spell at her, literally freezing her in her tracks mid-turn, before running forward in a surge of adrenaline, grabbing Thrask's sword from his hand and cutting off her head. Everyone watching seemed quite taken aback.

I dropped the sword and walked over to Anders, shaking his arm. "I… I'm sorry," said Alain, behind me. "She used blood magic to hold him. That's the only way I can wake him up." Ugh, he was going to hate that. Alain cut his hand in a swirl of blood magic and Anders sat up with a jerk, looking around wildly.

"Well this is embarrassing," he said, seeing me. "I never thought of myself as a damsel in distress. I never thought that mages would double-cross me like that."

I took his hand. "I swear I'll never let anything like this happen again."

He smiled wryly. "I'm always happy to see your face, but it seems particularly lovely right now."

Of course that was the point when Samson arrived with Cullen and some actual loyal Templars. "They're meeting in here, Ser Cullen…"

I glared at the lot of them. "Where were you five minutes ago?"

"Champion." Greeted Cullen. "Samson never said you were involved in this. I trust you were here to stop these traitors, not join them?"

"Stop. Definitely."

"The Champion's a good woman, ser," cut in Alain. "She tried to solve things peacefully."

Cullen looked annoyed. "Ugh. Put the mage to questioning."

"Hey, woah," I said. "Alain stood up to Grace when she tried to kill a hostage."

"Meaning he was one of them until he got cold feet at the last minute." Cullen sighed. "Fine. I'll encourage Meredith to go easy on him. But everyone else here is still under arrest. Do you have any more recommendations to make, Champion?"

"I can't believe I'm saying this after what they've done, but… except for Grace their main crime was doubting Meredith's leadership. If you killed everyone who did that, half of Kirkwall would be dead."

"You really think that's an excuse to spare blood mages and their willing dupes?" asked Cullen. I looked at him flatly. He sighed again. "Oh, all right. Maybe some of them might still be saved." That was probably the most I could ask for.

Despite the fact that it was the middle of the night, we went directly to Orsino to tell him what had happened. "So, I found out what your mysterious mage meeting was about- they were conspiring with a bunch of Templars to overthrow Meredith."

"And now I regret interfering."

"They kidnapped Anders."

Orsino looked at me. "You're angry."

"Yes. I am very, very angry. I agree that Meredith is going to ruin this city if she stays in charge but…"

Orsino looked around nervously. "Don't say that about Meredith out loud. It isn't safe. Though I guarantee that you aren't the only one thinking it."

"Definitely not," muttered Anders from behind me.

The next morning, I found Anders in the library with Varric, to whom he was unsuccessfully attempting to gift the old embroidered pillow that his mother had made. Varric was having none of it. "Nuh, uh. You keep your pillow, Blondie. And may you have many more dreams of killing Templars on it. Seriously, though. Normally when people start to give away their prized possessions it's a bad sign. You aren't dying, are you? More quickly than we thought , I mean."

"No of course not," said Anders.

"Good. You better not be." Varric left, muttering to himself as he passed me in the doorway.

Anders seemed to realize that I was there. "Oh! You're home." He came closer to me. "I wanted to tell you now, I love you. You stood by me when I gave you every reason to turn away. Just remember, whatever happens, I wanted you to know that."

This was… mildly alarming to say the least. "Anders, why are you talking like that?" I asked.

"He'll still be there, you know. Justice. Long after you and I are gone. It doesn't mean the same thing to a spirit. He'll just go back to the Fade."

"So, is this when you double-cross me?" I asked, only half-jokingly. "Because usually people don't go on like that unless they're about to stab someone in the back."

"I love you," Anders said fervently. "I wish that meant that I would never hurt you. You're the most important thing in my life. But some things matter more than my life. More than either of us."

I felt embarrassingly like I was going to cry. "You're wrong; nothing is more important than love!"

"I told you I would break your heart," he said softly. "Just know it breaks mine to do it. I was hoping we'd find a better way, but justice and vengeance are too intertwined. I can't tell one from the other." He smiled sadly. "You're the one shining light in my life. Never blame yourself for what will happen."

I stepped forward and reached up to touch his face. "Anders, I…" Maybe I should have told him right then what Marethari had told me. It would have been the honest thing to do, but with everything that was happening between the Templars and mages, the way he was talking… I chickened out. Thinking about it now, there was a pretty high chance that it would only have made him more determined to blow all the Templars to smithereens, anyway. "… I love you," I said instead, folding myself into his arms. "You never forget that either."


	34. Chapter 34

Part 3

6

The night that everything went wrong began completely normally. Anders was out, something I was soon to discover the reason for, and I had been sitting calmly in my study reading one of Varric's pulp novels when the frantic banging came from the front door. Great. "What is it?" I asked, feeling rather annoyed as I opened the door. The man on the other side looked panicked.

"It's the Knight Commander and the First Enchanter! They were arguing because the Knight Commander ordered the Templars to search all the mages' rooms and the First Enchanter said he was going to the Grand Cleric and walked out and the Knight Commander said she was going to stop him and now they're arguing outside the Chantry and I think they're going to kill each other!" he wailed, gesturing wildly.

I groaned. Was just one quiet evening in too much to ask? "All right," I sighed. "Take me to them."

Meredith and Orsino were standing at the foot of the stairs leading to the Chantry shouting at each other, surrounded by a rapidly growing circle of gawkers that seemed to include everyone I knew. Meredith was flanked by several Templars, which didn't look good.

"-searched top to bottom!" said Meredith angrily.

"You can't do that!" Orsino shouted back. "You have no right!"

"I have every right! You are harboring blood mages, and I intend to root them out before they infect this city!"

"Blood magic! Where do you not see blood magic? My people cannot sneeze without you accusing them of corruption!"

"Do not trifle with me, mage! My patience is at an end."

That did not sound good. "All right," I said, "What are you two fighting over this time?"

"None of your business, Champion," snapped Meredith.

"I called her here," said Orsino. Well, that explained the frantic messenger. "I think the people deserve to know what you've done."

"What I have done is protect the people of this city time and again! What I have done is protect you mages from your curse and your own stupidity! And I will not stop doing it! I will not lower my guard! I dare not!"

Riiiight. "Meredith," I said, "Even ignoring the fact that you currently sound like an insane fanatic, I think you might possibly have a rather skewed idea of the concept of 'protection'."

"What other option do we have?" asked Meredith despairingly. "Look the other way? Tell the victims of a possessed mage that we meant no harm?"

"From what I can tell," I said quietly. "The number of possessions in this city would drop considerably if people weren't scared out of their minds because of you." There, I'd finally said it.

"See?" Said Orsino. "You're acting like we're all villains, but that isn't true!"

"I know," said Meredith, "and it breaks my heart to do it. But we must be vigilant!" Maker, it was like she didn't even process anything anyone else was saying. "If you cannot tell me another way, do not brand me a tyrant!"

Orsino seemed to realize that nothing was getting through to Meredith. "This is getting us nowhere. Grand Cleric Elthina will put a stop to this."

Orsino turned to walk to the Chantry, but Meredith grabbed him by the arm. "Don't you dare bring the Grand Cleric into this!"

Orsino glared at Meredith and moved to shake her off, but before he could do anything a voice I knew very well spoke up. "The Grand Cleric cannot help you," Anders cried in a strong, carrying voice as he walked toward the arguing pair. Everyone turned to stare at him.

"Explain yourself, mage!" snarled Meredith.

"I will not stand by and watch you treat all mages like criminals while those who would lead us bow to their Templar jailors!" Anders said, not particularly loudly but full of so much determination and pent-up righteous anger that all of the bystanders, who were really just there to watch the show, stood hanging onto his words.

"How dare you speak to me…" began Orsino.

Anders looked at him darkly, beginning to slam his staff onto the ground, the metal end striking sparks on the paving stones. "The Circle has failed us, Orsino!" The blue cracks began to spread across Anders face and his voice took on the echoing quality of Justice, though I was pretty sure that at this point it was both of them talking. "Even you should be able to see that! The time has come to act." The blue glow faded away and Anders glared at Meredith and Orsino before turning away, his face cast downward, looking sad. "There can be no half-measures."

A feeling of horrible foreboding rose up in my chest as I realized that something was about to go very, horribly to the bad. "Anders," I asked, afraid to hear the answer but needing to ask anyway. "What have you done?"

"There can be no turning back," he said quietly, somehow managing to simultaneously sound quietly determined and immensely, guiltily sad.

Anders looked up at the Chantry and everyone listening followed his gaze, watching in horror as a pillar of red light erupted from the roof of the building, pulling parts of the Chantry upward into the sky in a swirling vortex of red light before exploding outward. The crowd stared at what little rubble left behind on the ground as dust from the overhead explosion rained from the sky, covering everything in sight and surely blanketing the entire city. Most of the bystanders glanced around and ran off, presumably heading home.

"Maker have mercy!" gasped Meredith, stepping back from the center of destruction. Sebastian, standing over next to Fenris, dropped to his knees, looking like he was about to scream.

"There can be no peace," said Anders, still looking sad but sounding completely determined.

Orsino didn't seem able to even process what had just happened. "Why? Why would you even do such a thing?" he asked.

Anders glared at him almost defiantly. "I removed the chance of compromise because there is no compromise."

Meredith snapped out of her apparent shock. "The Grand Cleric has been slain by magic. The chantry has been destroyed." She glared at everyone with a slightly insane light in her eye. "As Knight-Commander of Kirkwall, I hereby invoke the right of Annulment. Every mage in the Circle is to be executed immediately!" I felt a surge of panic. Everyone in the Circle….

"What? The Circle didn't even do this!" protested Orsino. "It was a crazy apostate who is obviously also possessed!" He gestured wildly at the still glowing Anders and looked at me beseechingly. "Champion, help me stop this madness!"

"And I demand that you stand with us!" snapped Meredith. "Even you must see that this outrage cannot be tolerated!"

Aveline seemed to be having a minor mental breakdown. "This… is chaos. We must help the Knight-Commander."

"No!" said Merrill. "This wasn't their fault! You cannot possibly want the slaughter of innocent people, can you?"

I looked at all of them, smiling slightly at Merrill and Aveline. "I should think that you would all know me well enough by now to realize that there isn't a choice." I turned to the Knight-Commander. "Meredith," I snapped, "I can see that you're crazy, but even you have to realize that I will never help murder innocent people! And I can't let you do it either."

Sebastian glared at her. "Why are we debating the Right of Annulment when the monster who did this is right here?" he gestured angrily at Anders. "I swear, I will kill him."

"It can't be stopped now," said Anders, sounding determined. "You have to choose."

I looked at Anders. "This was your plan all along? Was this why you needed me to distract the Grand Cleric?"

"You were part of this?" Sebastian seemed somewhere between angry and horrified.

"If you knew what I was doing you would have felt honor-bound to stop me, I couldn't take that chance. The Circle is an injustice, in many places beyond Kirkwall. The world needs to see!"

"Elthina was not the Circle!" Snarled Sebastian. "She was a good woman and you murdered her!"

Orsino took the chance to jump in. "You fool! You've doomed us all!"

"We were already doomed," said Anders darkly. "A quick death now or a slow one later. I'd rather die fighting."

"None of this matters," said Meredith, looking at me. "The people will demand blood. Champion, it is your duty to help me."

"I can't do that," I said simply.

"But…What about Anders?" asked Sebastian. It was obvious that he thought we were getting off topic.

"Hawke," said Aveline behind me, "if you do this, I don't know if I can follow."

"You would defend these mages after all they have done? Throw yourself at a hopeless cause?" asked Fenris.

"They have done nothing," I told him. "They're innocent bystanders in this and nobody else will protect them. Which is why I have to defend them, hopeless cause or not. If nothing else, we can at the very least evacuate the children."

"Are you sure about this?" asked Varric. "Even you might not be able to win this fight."

I gave him a small smile. "Depends on your definition of winning."

"I believe in you," said Merrill loyally. "I know you can do this." Well at least someone did.

"What have you gotten yourself into this time?" Isabella muttered, obviously talking to herself.

"Think carefully, Champion," said Meredith. "Stand with them and you share their fate."

Why did everyone seem to think that they could change my mind? It was like they didn't know me at all. I missed Carver. He would have just muttered 'hero complex' and thrown up his hands. "Nice of you to warn, me, Meredith," I said, "But I'd rather die protecting innocent people than live knowing I helped kill them."

"Thank the Maker," whispered Orsino behind me.

Fenris sighed. "This is a horrible mistake. But I won't abandon you."

Aveline nodded. "I see what you are trying to do and my place…" she sighed, "is with you."

"You are a fool, Champion," said Meredith. She looked at her Templars. "Kill them all! I will rouse the rest of the order."

"Hurry!" Orsino shouted at the mages who had congregated behind him during the argument. "Get to the Gallows before it's too late!" They nodded and dashed off, taking a slightly different route from Meredith.

The Templars that Meredith had brought with her attacked and found themselves blasted against the wall of the nearest building, where they were picked off by Varric and Merrill before they could get up and come at us with swords again. "So it's come to this," said Orsino tiredly. "I don't know if we can win this war, Champion, but… thank you." He looked disgustedly at Anders, who was now sitting on a large piece of rubble that had rolled down the steps from the Chantry, staring into space. "I'll leave your… friend… for you to deal with. I need to get to the Gallows before Meredith." Orsino gave Anders one last glare before hurrying off after the mages.

I sighed and walked over to stand behind Anders. "There's nothing you can say that I haven't already said to myself," he said bitterly. "I took a spirit into my soul and changed myself forever to achieve this. This is the justice all mages have awaited."

I glared at him, though he couldn't see it. "This is justice? What, did that spirit tell you to do this?"

"No. When we merged, he ceased to be. We are one now. I can no more ignore the injustice of the Circle than he could."

The sad thing about all of this was I understood exactly how he was feeling. Still…"You took it out on the wrong target. And you lied to me."

"I wanted to tell you," he said. "But what if you stopped me? Or worse, what if you wanted to help? I couldn't let you do that. The world needs to see this. Then we can all stop pretending that the Circle is a solution. And if I pay for it with my life, then I pay. Perhaps then at least Justice will be free."

So. That was it. I walked around to stand in front of him, feeling furious. "That's what you intend to do? You want to die. Make a huge symbolic gesture to start a war; put hundreds of innocent people in danger, and then just- not have to handle the results. You think that you can get out of the responsibility of dealing with what you have started. Right now every single person in the Circle is in danger of losing their life because. Of. You." I said, poking him in the chest for emphasis. "You don't get to dodge the responsibility for that. You put those people in danger, so you help save them. Understood?"

Anders nodded, looking a bit like he was in shock. "You mean…I can stay with you? I didn't think you'd let me."

"The only thing I'm not going to let you do is avoid the responsibility of fixing the mess you've created."

Anders smiled, beginning to seem more enthusiastic. "If you let me stay, I'll fight the Templars. Damned right I will!"

"No!" Sebastian looked furious. "You cannot let this abomination walk free! He dies, or I am returning to Starkhaven!" As threats went, it was pretty passive-aggressive, and not very frightening. He should have gone back to Starkhaven ages ago, really. He wasn't being very responsible himself, basically abandoning the people who owed his family their fealty. "And I will bring such an army with me on my return that there will be nothing left of Kirkwall for these malifacarum to rule!"

All right, that was slightly more worrying. I looked at Sebastian coldly. "Do not do that."

"I thought I knew you Hawke. I left Starkhaven to serve the Maker, and he turned his back on Kirkwall for harboring heretics like this. I swear to you, I will come back and find your precious Anders and I will teach him what true justice is."

Apparently Sebastian did know me, if his plan to get at me was to threaten a city full of innocent people. That…needed to be deflected as soon as possible. "One way or another, I won't be in Kirkwall by then. If it's because I've left rather than died then…" I leaned in closer to whisper. "Catch. Us. If. You. can." Sebastian glared at me and left. Well, hopefully that would distract him from any 'holding innocent bystanders hostage' type of plan that he might have.

"Thank you for my life," said Anders quietly from behind me. "I'll try not to make such a mess of it this time."

"We'd better get to the Gallows quickly," said Varric. "It's going to be quite a show."


	35. Chapter 35

Part 3

7

We made our way to the docks through streets filled with smoke from fires that had sprung up, ash from the explosion still hanging in the air. The streets had emptied of civilians and several times, we ran into fighting between groups of mages and Templars. When we reached Lowtown, we ran into Carver fighting a group of Templars outside Gamlen's house. "Seriously? You came to Kirkwall and didn't visit me, again? Despite visiting Gamlen?"

He shrugged. "I'm still annoyed with you for the Deep Roads expedition and me having to become a Grey Warden."

"You like being a Grey Warden!"

"Not the point." When we began heading toward the docks again, Carver followed us.

When we got to the docks, we hurried over to the nearest small boat capable of taking us over to the Gallows and piled in.

When we reached the Gallows, we found Orsino finishing off a group of attacking Templars. "Champion! You made it!" He looked relieved.

"And here you are."

I turned around. "Meredith."

"Let's talk, Meredith," called Orsino, "before this battle destroys the city you're claiming to protect."

"Alright. Let's talk about your surrender."

"Why would they possibly want to surrender?" I asked. "You invoked the Right of Annulment. Surrendering would literally be suicide."

"Revoke the Right before this goes too far," said Orsino. "Imprison us, search the tower like you wanted to, I'll even help you. But don't kill us all for something we didn't even do."

"No. Too late. The Grand Cleric was killed by a mage. The people will demand retribution."

"I'm pretty sure the people would just be happy to not have the city destroyed by fighting," I commented.

"You heard her," said Orsino bitterly. "This is what she's been wanting all along. So what's it to be? Will we fight it out here?"

"No. Go prepare your people." Why would she give him a chance to… "The rest of the Order is already crossing the harbor." Oh. So her reinforcements could arrive.

"This isn't over, Meredith," snarled Orsino. He turned and left, along with the mages who had stood with him. My party followed.

The mages gathered in a courtyard. Orsino looked at them and sighed. He gave a speech urging them to escape and bring word of this entire disaster to the other Circles so that the Templars didn't get away with this before suggesting I go talk with my friends before we all died. Okay, he didn't say before we all died in so many words, but it was obvious that he was thinking it.

"That was cheery," commented Zevran behind me.

I jumped. "When did you get here?"

"I've been here the entire time."

"Nobody noticed you."

"I should hope not."

I rolled my eyes and went over to talk to Carver. "What am I even doing here?" He asked. "I should be off fighting archdemons or something, but… I'm glad to be here with you. And I'm proud to call you my sister. I only wish Mother were here to see us finally getting along." I laughed quietly. "In war, victory, Champion. And whatever else may come."

Aveline was standing a few feet away. "Captain," I greeted.

She laughed. "Not for much longer if this goes badly. What a mess. You really put loyalty to the test, you know. Donnic's kept the Guard busy protecting civilians so at least Meredith won't have any help from my men. And the civilians won't all die. With luck… well, let's just say we need some luck."

I sighed. "I never meant to mess up your life like this."

Aveline snorted. "I think it's something that just sort of happens to friends of yours. It's worth it." She smiled. "Let's bust some heads like the old days."

"Nervous, Hawke?" Asked Varric wryly.

"Nah, why would I be nervous? All we're doing is making a heroic last stand against the Templars."

"It'll be quite a way to go," he admitted. "You know me, Hawke. I'm not one for long goodbyes. I'm not exactly sure that helping dangerous people run amok is such a good idea, but I'm with you anyway."

"Aw, come on. What could possibly go wrong?" I asked humorously.

"I hate it when you say that. What do you say we put an end to all this waiting around and go meet destiny?" I smirked.

Merrill looked nervous. "I feel like I'm forgetting something. Or there's more to do, or… Does all this feel like a dream to you?"

"I think I've had similar dreams before. I always woke up before they ended, though."

"Hawke," she said seriously, "Before we go, I…"

"Hey, what are you saying goodbye for? We're going to be fine." I smiled at her and Merrill nodded.

"You know, you don't have to be here if you don't want to," I said to Isabella.

She shrugged. "If I didn't want to be here I would have left already. Your life would have been a lot easier if you'd ditched me, but instead you fought the Arishok for me, even after I betrayed you. So I'm not going to abandon you when you need help the most."

I shrugged too. "You came back with the book. It was the least I could do."

"See? That, right there, that's the reason I'm staying. I know that I don't exactly inspire much confidence, but when you look for me I'll be fighting at your side."

"And now I'm about to defend mages in hopeless battle." Fenris looked a bit surprised that he was even here. "You lead me to strange places, Hawke. Extremely strange. I hate mages."

"We fight life-or-death battles all the time," I pointed out. "What's one more, really?"

Fenris smiled. "An excellent point. You're a good friend, Hawke. The best I've ever had. It will be an honor to fight at your side. Even if we are defending mages."

There was only one person I hadn't talked to yet. I closed my eyes for a moment, then opened them and walked over to Anders.

"I should have trusted you," he said. "Even with all we've shared, I never thought you'd spare my life." Well, that much had been obvious. "If we live through this, you know I'll be hunted. No one in Kirkwall will offer me mercy. But… if you would join me… I'd rather be on the run with you than safe with anyone else."

"Don't worry, I promise to kill anyone who tries to arrest you."

"Kirkwall can't change alone, love," Anders said imploringly. "Even if we win here it will take years of open warfare throughout Thedas before mages could be safe. If you wish to stay with me, you must join me in that fight."

The sane response to this would be something along the lines of 'no way', but he was kind of right. It was already too late to prevent a war and maybe by fighting it, we could all finally have a chance to live without being afraid. Besides, I was never very sane, anyway. "I wasn't able to kill you; I can't abandon you either. Which is probably an irrational decision, but… I love you. Besides," I added with a weak smile, "I was going to fight anyway, it's not like I was going to stick my head in the sand and ignore all of this. Don't tell him I said it, but maybe Carver was right about me having a hero complex. Anyway. Everything's going to come crashing down anyway. Nobody can stop that now. All we can do is build up something better from the ashes. If I have to fight, then there's no one I would rather fight beside. We'll do this together."

Anders looked ridiculously happy. "We will fight for a world where our children can be born mages and free. Ten years, a hundred years from now, someone like me will love someone like you, and there will be no Templars to tear them apart. May the Maker bring us victory. Or everything else is meaningless."

I realized that I should probably mention… "Okay, so this is a horrible time to talk about this, but I'm beginning to get the feeling that with how my luck runs there is probably never going to be a good time for it…"

Anders looked utterly confused confused. "What is it?"

"Sooo, that 'children' comment you just made… There's kind of… going to be one of those. Um, in about eight months."

Anders looked stupefied. "There's what?!" came Carver's shriek from behind me. Because of course he had been listening in. Brothers. Carver lunged at Anders, reaching for his sword. "You bastard!" Luckily, Aveline and Varric had the presence of mind to grab him before he could get at his weapon. "Let me go!" He shouted. "Let me go so I can kill him! Damn terrorist knocking up my sister and then starting wars…"

"I hate to interrupt your drama," said Orsino, "but the Templars will be here in a few minutes."

Carver ceased his infuriated struggles and Aveline and Varric let go of him. "Fine. I'll kill you after the battle," he snarled at Anders.

I sighed. Orsino glanced at the doors opening into the courtyard. "Right," he muttered. The First Enchanter turned to the assembled mages and clapped his hands. "Everyone listen," He called out. "The Templars are coming. No matter how much power we have, we cannot defeat them." Well, that was a nice start to a pre-battle pep talk. Not. "There is only one thing for us to do. Survive. Don't give up! Escape from Kirkwall, tell the other Circles what has happened here. Even if nearly all of us die, they won't get away with what they are doing here today." Some of the mages cheered. It seemed weak in the vast courtyard and in the light of what we were about to do, but they no longer seemed despairing.

Orsino nodded to me. "Time to get ready. Give orders to your people, I'll do the same with mine."

I nodded as well, gesturing for my companions, who circled around me. "Well, this is it," I said. "Anders, we don't have any other healers, so you need to keep in the back and heal us. Merrill, Varric, stay in the back and snipe the Templars. Also, cover Anders. Remember, every moment you have to stop fighting to take a healing potion is a moment in which someone could stab you."

Anders looked at me suspiciously. "Did you leave me alive because you love me or because you didn't want to go into battle without a healer?"

"You forget the part about refusing to let you dodge the responsibility of dealing with the fallout of your actions." I turned to the others. "Carver and Aveline, you're in charge of the melee fighting and making sure they don't get at the long range fighters. Which is pretty much everyone except for the two of you. Isabella, stab people from the shadows. Zevran… you do whatever it is you need to. The biggest advantages the two of you have are your stealth and unpredictability. Take advantage of that." I sighed. "So. This is it. We're backed into a corner here, and I don't know about you, but I don't like being cornered. But I do know that everyone here is desperate, and that makes us a lot more dangerous than them. So fight. Because losing this battle means losing everything."

Varric whistled. "That was some speech, Hawke."

Orsino came up behind me. "Champion. They're coming."

I nodded. "Right. Positions, everyone!" They scattered to their places as Templars began to pour into the courtyard.

I drew my staff and moved back to a position behind Carver and Aveline along with Merrill. "I kind of wish I'd taken Olivia up on her offer to teach me to be an Arcane Warrior. It would be really useful to know how to use a sword right now."

And so the fight began.


	36. Chapter 36

Part 3

8

The fighting was… difficult but we were holding them off. I actually made a mental note to laugh at Cullen for the quality of his recruits before remembering that the next time I saw him he'd probably be trying to kill me. Blast.

Several of the Templars got past Carver, Aveline, and all the numerous magical and elemental barriers that the various mages had set up and went for the Circle mages. Swearing, I managed to freeze the one about to behead Alain, but the others managed to kill three of the other unarmored and untrained in battle Circle mages before the others ganged up on two of them and Merrill, Varric, and I shot down the rest of the first wave of attackers, giving our group a little breathing room before more showed up.

Orsino looked miserably at the dead mages. "Look at all of this!" He said in a pained voice. "Why don't they just kill us as soon as they find us? Why do they bother to wait? Why give us the illusion of hope?"

"You want my honest opinion?" I asked. "It's so that they can delude themselves into thinking that they have the moral high ground. Also because they like having us around to use our powers for stuff like healing people, enchanting things, and fighting darkspawn."

Orsino scowled. "I refuse to keep running away from this. I won't sit around and wait for her to kill me. It's time to take the battle to her!"

I looked around, taking stock of the situation. There were three mages and twelve Templars dead. Total, there were about twice as many Templars as mages and about half of the mages couldn't fight. Based just on those numbers each side had about an even chance of winning, but Meredith seemed a bit too unstable to come up with very good battle plans, and besides that the layout of the Gallows actually made it a pretty good place to fight a defensive battle, so... "Actually, it's quite possible that we could win," I said, "Well, hold them off, at least. The real difficulty is in not getting bogged down in a siege. We need a way to get out of here before they have time to send for reinforcements from the Chantry or another Circle." I wheeled around, an epiphany coming to me. "Isabella!"

"…yes?"

"Your ship! And you're sneaky!"

She frowned. "Where is this going?"

"Can you get past the Templars without being noticed?"

"Yes." She seemed to be beginning to catch on. "Stealing one of their rowboats and getting to the city docks might be a bit difficult for most people, but I can handle it."

"What about manning it?"

"I can throw together enough people for a skeleton crew, even under these circumstances."

"Provisions?"

"I'm a pirate, of course I have emergency provisions stocked up aboard."

"Go for it."

Isabella paused. "You're… really trusting me with this?"

"Yes."

"Thank you," she said quietly.

"Go." She nodded and vanished. Behind me, Orsino was pacing and muttering. He appeared to be having some sort of mental breakdown. "First Enchanter? I've set up an escape plan." He didn't answer me and I frowned at him. "Get it together. This isn't helping anything."

"I'm tired of helping."

"Um, what?"

"Quentin's research was too dangerous, too evil, so I put it aside."

"Quentin? Are you talking about the man who murdered my mother?" I asked dangerously. Orsino ignored me in favor of continuing his rant.

"But now I see the necessity. There is no other way."

"Orsino? Whatever you're about to do, there really isn't any need for it, I guarantee."

Five more Templars ran into the courtyard but stopped to stare at the monologuing First Enchanter. Ah, monologue etiquette. Nobody ever interrupts to attack in the middle of one. I suppose it's because listening to a monologue is a bit like watching a shipwreck. So morbidly mesmerizing that you just can't look away until it's over.

"Meredith wants blood magic?" Orsino raged. "Fine! I'll show her blood magic!" To the alarm of everyone watching, the First Enchanter took out a dagger and slashed it across his palm.

"…why was he carrying that thing around?" asked Carver of no one in particular. "I mean, it's pretty obviously a weapon, not exactly one would expect of a pocketknife."

"Not the time, Carver," I said tensely the air around Orsino began to fill with bright spots of light.

He raised his arms and the bodies of the three dead mages began to lift from the ground and wrap around him as his skin turned gray and the entire mass merged into one gigantic… icky gray flesh monster with six arms, four of them coming out of its head.

The good news was that the Templars and the giant monster that had been Orsino attacked one another. The bad news was that once the monster had finished off the Templars- which only took a few seconds- it turned on us.

"Oh, yeah, really helpful, Orsino," I muttered, firing off ice spells at the monster. It kept targeting Anders. I suspected that whatever was left of the First Enchanter's mind was still angry at him for blowing up the Chantry and setting this whole thing off.

The only good thing about the giant flesh monster going after Anders and mostly ignoring the rest of us was that it didn't seem to care that we were attacking it and, after several minutes of us stabbing and shooting while Anders attempted to get in hits and avoid being smashed like the Templars had been, we managed to kill it.

"Well," I said after staring at the dead monster for a few moments. "We should go clear a path through the main courtyard to the docks to meet up with Isabella."

There weren't many Templars between us and the main courtyard, only about a dozen or so of them. None of us were even badly injured. In the final room, however, we found… "Sandal?"

The young dwarf turned to look at me. "Enchantment!"

I stared. "Again?"

"Like I said earlier," Anders said. "He does that. This is not the strangest place he's turned up. For the sake of your sanity, just try not to question it. That's what everyone else does."

"…Right, let's just go."


	37. Chapter 37

Part 3

9

Of course, true to my luck, our getaway couldn't be simple.

Meredith was waiting in the courtyard, followed by at least twenty Templars, including Cullen.

I turned to look at the combat-capable Circle mages. "My friends and I will keep them busy," I said in a low voice. "You focus on getting everyone straight to the docks."

Slowly, followed by my friends, I walked toward Meredeth and the rest of the Templars, stopping a few feet away from her.

"So," she said. "Here we are, Champion, at long last."

"You're insane," I said coldly. "And you'll pay for all the innocent people you've killed."

"All I have done is perform my duty," she answered in her usual hard voice. "What happens to you now is your own doing."

"I'm so tired of you blaming your victims for what you do to them," I said angrily. "You torment and kill and when the people you oppress try to fight back or turn to blood magic out of desperation and fear you use it as an excuse to hurt more people and claim to be in the right."

"Despite being a mage, you were never part of the Circle, and I tolerated it, but in choosing to protect them you will share their fate."

Cullen looked confused. "Knight-Commander, I thought we were going to arrest the Champion." Of course he did. In some ways, Cullen could be so naïve.

"You will do as I order you, Cullen," said Meredith.

"No. When Thrask started telling people you'd gone mad, I defended you, but this is going too far. He was right!"

"I will not allow insubordination," Meredith snarled, drawing her sword and pointing it at Cullen.

The sword was glowing from within with red light, the color of the lyrium statue that we had found in the Deep Roads. Varric swore.

"Recognize it?" Meredith smirked. "Pure lyrium, straight from the Deep Roads. That dwarf charged quite a lot for it."

Oh, Bartrand, you continue to cause trouble for us. Still this did explain a lot about Meredith's increasingly erratic behavior. "How in the world did you manage to make an entire sword out of that thing? It wasn't anywhere close to being that large."

Meredith ignored me. "All of you!" she shouted at the Templars, gesturing with the sword. "Kill her!"

"Enough!" snapped Cullen. "This isn't what the Templar Order is about! Meredith, you're obviously unfit for duty and I relieve you of your command!"

"So," said Meredith. "Even you fall to the influence of blood magic. You're all weak!" she shouted at the Templars, "All of you! Letting the blood mages control your minds and turn you against me! I don't need any of you! I'll protect this city from the blood mages all by myself!"

"You're insane," said Cullen. "If you want to kill anyone, you'll have to go through me first!"

"Traitor! I'll kill you!"

"Just like Bartrand," muttered Varric.

Several of the Templars walked cautiously away from the ranting Meredith and went to stand with Cullen. Nobody could blame them. We drew our weapons and the two sides rushed each other.

The Templars were all fighting each other. The rest of us charged at Meredith.

Aveline, Carver, and Fenris attacked her head-on, but she seemed to be holding all three of them off easily. I swept an ice spell across her, forcing her backward. She fell to one knee, her eyes glowing red as she gasped out a prayer.

Meredith climbed to her feet and jumped straight up, somehow flying high into the air and backfliping to land on the steps behind her. Growling, she stabbed her sword into the ground and red light ran around the walls of the courtyard, hitting the gigantic bronze statues that stood everywhere.

Slowly, the statues came loose from their moorings and began to move on their own. And now we had to fight a bunch of giant statues.

Merrill and I focused on the statues while the others went back after Meredith. I bombarded the statues with ice spells, slowing down their already cumbersome movements. Cracks began to form on the statues from the magical cold.

Merrill's eyes widened. She attacked the nearest statue with a stonefist spell and it shattered. Merrill and I looked at each other and began to repeat the process with the other statues. By the time we had gotten all of them, nearly all of my energy was gone. I only had enough left for maybe one or two low-level spells.

Gasping for breath, I turned to Meredith. Aveline, Carver, and Fenris were slowly wearing her down. Straightening, I flung an ice spell at her and she staggered back, breathing raggedly. "No! I will not be defeated," she shouted. Holding the sword in both hands, she pointed it to the sky. "Maker, aid your humble servant."

The sword exploded, completely vaporized in a burst of red light that swirled around Meredith, who screamed, falling to her knees. As the light swirled around her, she threw her head back in pain, her entire body transforming into a red lyrium statue.

As we were staring at the statue that was formerly Meredith, Cullen and the remaining Templars surrounded us, swords raised. One of them ran forward to examine the statue, though she seemed to have the sense to not actually touch it. Cullen looked me in the eyes, a grim expression on his face. Then, he slowly backed away, the other Templars following his example.

Without a word, I slowly turned and walked in the direction of the docks, my friends following me. Nobody tried to stop us from leaving.


	38. Chapter 38

Part 3

10

Due to Cullen choosing to have the Templars stand down, we actually had a few hours before we needed to leave Kirkwall. Everyone had time to go home and pack, as well as pick up more supplies for the ship, which was a good thing considering that most of the mages were planning on sailing with us for a little while before going their separate ways and that was more people than Isabella had been expecting for a hypothetical spur of the moment flight from the city.

While everyone was preparing, I went home to make last minute arrangements. I picked up a few keepsakes that I didn't want to leave behind and some things that I figured I would need later- mainly weapons and healing potions- and put them in a bag to take down to Isabella's ship. Standing in the manor's foyer, I gave a few instructions to Charade. "…You're in charge of the manor and the Amell investments in Kirkwall. That mostly involves making sure the blasted Bone Pit mine turns some kind of profit, keeping the manor in shape- Orana can take care of that part, just remember to pay her," I said.

"Why aren't you leaving me in charge?" asked Gamlen rather sulkily.

I rolled my eyes. "Because last time that happened you spent everything gambling and searching for the Gem of Keroshek, leading to us needing money, which led to us meeting Anders and helping him when he probably would have gotten killed by Templars or something without us and to us going on the Deep Roads expedition, which led to finding that old thaig and the evil lyrium idol when Bartrand and Varric would have just turned around after the cave-in if they had been on their own, which led to Meredith getting the idol, which led to her going crazy, all of which led to this disaster," I said, gesturing around us.

"This is not my fault!" said Gamlen.

"No," I admitted, "Something was bound to happen no matter what. But things might not have gone quite as horribly wrong if you had just done your job and taken care of the estate."

"This is not my fault!" repeated Gamlen.

"I know, it's everyone's fault, really," I said. "But I'm still not giving you any responsibilities because you haven't done very well with them in the past."

"Are you really leaving?" asked Orana worriedly. "Can't you take me with you?"

"We're going to be on the run. It isn't safe," I told her. "Besides, I really do need someone to work on the manor's upkeep and help Charade. I know that you can do it," I added with confidence.

Orana nodded determinedly. "I will."

"All right," I said, picking up my bag and slinging it over my shoulder. "Time for me to get going before Cullen changes his mind." I nodded to the three of them and walked out the door, heading directly for the docks.

Without any real destination, we headed vaguely back in the direction of Ferelden, our group splintering off as we stopped at various points along the coast. Aveline took off back to Kirkwall after only a few days of traveling with us, citing the need to return to her responsibilities as Guard Captain and Varric went with her, pointing out that someone besides Cullen was needed to help her put the city back together.

Carver stuck around for a little longer and, true to his word continually attempted to assassinate Anders. After about a month, though, someone pointed out to him that he really did need to get back to the Grey Wardens as they would start missing him eventually and he departed as well, taking Merrill with him.

Most of the mages, of course, left to go tell other Circles what had happened in Kirkwall. The other Circles did not take the news well.

Isabella decided to take up piracy again, along with Fenris, who pointed out that he really didn't have anything better to do now that Danarius was dead.

When we reached Ferelden, Anders and I finally took our leave as well. He, of course, wanted to start helping out with the rebellions that were now sweeping the Circles of Thedas, but I pointed out that, firstly, I wasn't going to be combat-ready for a few months pretty soon and secondly, the presence of the man responsible for plunging the continent into chaos was, at this point, probably not going to help the mages' cause.

And besides, we've been hearing some rather disturbing things involving more of that red lyrium…


End file.
